THE  COLLECTORS'  POCKET  SERIES 

EDITED  BY   SIR  JAMES  YOXALL,  M.P. 


COLLECTING  OLD 
M  I  N IATURES 


COLLECTING  OLD 
MI  N I ATUR  ES 

BY   J.    H.   YOXALL 

Author  of  "The  Wander  Years,"  "The  ABC 
about  Collecting,"  "  More  about  Collecting" 


Une  fragile  miniature  encaJree  : 
Gide,  "  Isabelle"  iv. 


NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 

MCMXVI 


Printed  in  Gnat  Britain 


PREFACE 

1  WROTE  this  book  with  delight,  for  the  sheer 
pleasure  of  writing  about  miniatures  ;  which  is, 
I  suppose,  a  good  way  in  which  to  write  a  book 
about  a  hobby.  And  I  wrote  it  for  people  who  are 
not  too  high-and-dry  to  enjoy  a  good  miniature  because 
it  is  not  the  best  or  most  costly  of  the  kind. 

If  anybody  should  tax  me  with  assumption,  for 
picturing  miniatures  from  my  own  collection  only,  I 
will  stoutly  reply  that  surely  it  is  a  good  way  to  show 
that  collecting  good  old  miniatures  can  still  be  done  ? 
For  all  these,  and  a  good  few  others,  have  been  found 
by  hunting  during  the  last  nine  years,  and  they  are  not 
unrepresentative  of  minatures  as  a  whole.  If  men- 
tioning the  prices  given  for  them  offends  any  wealthy 
or  ultra-fastidious  reader,  I  answer  that  surely  such  in- 
formation as  that  is  just  what  a  would-be  collector 
would  like  to  have  ? 

The  usual  plan  in  works  on  this  subject  is  to  illustrate 
them  from  unique  or  exclusive  miniatures,  inaccessible 
to  the  ordinary  view  and  purse  ;  I  suppose  that  is  why 
in  other  books  on  miniatures  such  a  matter  as  prices  is 
tabooed.  The  usual  books  on  miniatures  supply  the 
reader  with  descriptions  of  heirlooms,  or  the  quarry 
of  millionaires,  and  with  biographies  of  artists,  or  other 
encyclopaedic  information.  Here,  however,  wishing 


PREFACE 

to  be  helpful,  direct,  and  lucid,  I  have  tried  to  keep  to 
the  point,  which  is  to  suggest  how,  where,  for  what, 
and  at  what  cost  a  beginner  may  hopefully  seek. 

I  am  of  course  aware  that  "  the  good  is  the  enemy 
of  the  best,"  but  on  the  other  hand  the  best  may  be 
made  the  enemy  of  the  good,  as  indeed  it  is  by  high- 
and-dry  collectors  and  writers  about  miniatures  ;  to 
refuse  any  but  the  rarest  and  most  costly  examples  is  a 
game  of  patience  at  which  only  the  wealthy  can  play. 
But  I  have  seen  in  the  kitchen-sitting-room  of  a  very 
small  house  a  hundred  old  miniatures  which  enthusiasm 
had  collected  for  small  sums,  yet  with  great  delight  ; 
many  of  the  hundred  were  quite  fine,  not  one  was  not 
worth  collecting,  and  they  gave  as  much  joy  to  the 
owner  as  a  Park  Lane  collection  can  do. 

There  are  fortunate  folk  who  inherit  family  miniatures, 
but  the  happiest  possessors  are  they  who  collect  for 
themselves.  And  as  I  know  that  this  pleasure  may 
still  be  had  by  people  of  moderate  means,  I  have  written 
this  book  to  say  so  ;  not  merely  for  publication  and  pelf, 
but  because  my  fingers  tingled  (so  to  speak)  to  write 
about  miniatures,  those  dainty  morsels  of  beauty  and 
joy. 

Kew,  1915.  J.  H.  YOXALL 

[N.B.  The  illustrations  in  this  book  do  not  repre- 
sent relative  sizes  to  the  same  scale. 

I  shall  much  value  the  kindness  of  any  reader  who 
recognises  and  names  a  sitter  sending  me  the  in- 
formation on  a  postcard. — J.  H.  Y.] 


VI 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I.  CAN  IT  STILL  BE  DONE?  1 

II.  WHERE  AND  HOW  COLLECTING 
MINIATURES  CAN  BE  DONE 

III.  COUNTERFEITS  AND  THEIR  DETECTION 

IV.  CLASSES  OF  MINIATURES 

V.  THE  TRANSITION  TO  IVORY 
VI.  MINIATURES  DONE  ON  PAPER 

VII.  MINIATURES  DONE  ON  IVORY 
VIII.  FRENCH  MINIATURES  ON  IVORY 
IX.  MINIATURES  DONE  IN  ENAMEL 
X.  MINIATURES  DONE  ON  PORCELAIN 
XI.  MISCELLANEA  AND  SIGNATURES 
INDEX 


vu 


I.  CAN  IT  STILL  BE  DONE? 


M 


ANY  a  would-be  collector  of  fine  old  miniatures 
is  put  off  by  the  belief  that  they  all  are  already 
hoarded,  in  galleries  like  the  Wallace  or  the 
Victoria  and  Albert,  or  in  mansions  such  as  Windsor 
Castle,  Montagu  House,  Chatsworth,  Welbeck  Abbey, 
and  Ham  House.  There  they  are,  there  they  will 
remain,  and  that  is  an  end  to  it,  is  what  most  would-be 
collectors  suppose ;  but  to  gloat  upon  a  splendid 
seventeenth-century  miniature  on  silver  which  cost  a 
guinea,  and  a  Holbeinesque  miniature  on  gold  which 
cost  fifty-five  shillings,  is  to  know  by  experience  that 
collecting  such  delightful  old  treasures  may  still  be 
done. 

You  must  have  the  flair,  of  course — that  is,  you  must 
hunt  on  the  scent,  and  know  the  quarry  when  you  come 
upon  it — but  these  are  knacks  and  qualities  which 
almost  anybody  can  acquire.  Experience  does  it ;  that 
it  still  can  be  done,  and  how,  I  shall  hope  to  show.  I 
will  try  to  show  it  systematically  yet  interestingly, 
classifying  but  expounding,  giving  explicit  advice  as 
to  the  search  for  the  real,  and  tests  and  warnings  as  to 
the  counterfeit  ;  with  illustrations  taken  from  my  own 
collection.  What  they  cost  me  is  mentioned  also,  to 
show  that  desirable  old  miniatures  may  still  be  hunted 
for  hopefully,  and — one  at  a  time,  no  doubt,  and  with 
A  1 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
intervals  between  the  findings — may  still  be  found  at 
reasonable  prices. 

Now,  this  is  a  piece  of  work  which  has  not  hitherto 
been  done.  Most  books  on  old  miniatures  are  big, 
tantalizing,  and  even  forbidding,  for  they  tell  us  all 
about  inaccessible  or  unique  old  miniatures  very 
learnedly,  but  help  us  little  in  collecting  miniatures 
which  may  still  be  had  ;  the  most  pretentious,  which 
was  also,  perhaps,  the  worst,  was  produced  in  Germany. 
I  hardly  wonder  at  a  friend  of  mine  who,  irritated  by 
one  of  these  books,  cast  it  into  his  study  fire.  But  that 
was  hasty  ;  such  a  book  as  that  is  valuable  for  reference, 
as  a  kind  of  dictionary  of  miniaturists'  names  and  styles, 
though  very  incomplete  even  for  that  purpose.  And 
there  is  encouragement  in  such  books,  too,  even  for  a 
collector  who  wishes  to  be  practical  and  successful,  not 
mooning  over  descriptions  of  the  locked-up  possessions 
of  others  ;  for  instance,  one  learns  that  George  Engle- 
heart  must  have  painted  some  5000  miniatures,  and 
that  only  some  half  dozen  of  them  are  shut  up  in  national 
museums.  So  where  are  the  rest  ? 

I  am  writing  for  persons  of  taste  and  cultivation  who 
can  seldom  afford  to  buy  an  old  miniature  for  more 
than  quite  a  few  pounds  ;  and  I  am  not  writing 
out  of  mere  book-knowledge  or  hearsay,  but  out  of 
experience,  bought  and  gained  by  myself.  By  actual 
practice  I  have  found  that  with  aptness  and  assiduity 
in  the  search  quite  a  number  of  good  old  miniatures, 
some  really  excellent,  can  be  come  upon  in  quite  a 
few  years,  at  quite  a  moderate  cost.  More  anxious 
to  be  helpful  than  oracular  on  the  subject,  I  need  not 
2 


CAN    IT  STILL  BE   DONE 

suppose  the  possession  of  much  preliminary  knowledge 
of  the  subject  by  readers  of  this  book,  and  indeed  I 
have  discovered  that  people  expert  in  the  matter  are 
quite  few.  No  standard  in  miniature  collecting  exists, 
or  can  be  set  up,  perhaps,  and  I  am  sure  I  shall  be 
pardoned  by  many 
for  trying  to  be 
lucid  and  direct  in 
what  I  here  write. 
My  best  e  x- 
amples  will  illus- 
trate later  chapters, 
and  I  merely  begin 
with  these  ;  but 
No.  1  is  a  well- 
painted  miniature 
which,  in  a  papier- 
mache  and  ormolu 
frame,  cost  me  only 
7s.  6d.  in  1908. 
Romance  and 
imagination  stir  at  the  thought  of  who  was  he,  this 
rather  serious,  distinguished  he  with  the  thoughtful 
eyes,  the  strong-willed  chin,  the  powerful  nose,  and 
the  high  brow?  The  initials  and  date — A.G.,  1798 — 
written  near  the  border  are  the  only  trace  of  any  identity 
left ;  turning  up  the  records,  I  find  that  "  A.G."  must 
have  stood  for  a  certain  Andrea  Grazlia  who  exhibited 
portrait  miniatures  at  the  Royal  Academy  between 
1 776  and  1 792  ;  Andrea  Grazlia  was  obviously  an 
efficient  miniaturist,  yet  you  will  find  no  mention  of 

3 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

him  in  the  kind  of  big  book  my  friend  cast  into  the  fire. 
But  who  was  the  sitter  ?  There  is  something  of  the 
Scots  gentleman  about  him,  I  think.  He  wears  the 
dress  of  the  Directoire  period,  and  upon  the  collar  of 
his  fine  blue  coat  the  powder  is  lying  still  ;  he  dressed 
his  hair  m  a  queue,  he  wore  a  Beau  Brummell  neck- 
cloth ;  perhaps  the  painting  of  the  folds  and  shadows 

of  the  waistcoat  is 
defective,  but  as 
he  looks  out  of  the 
frame  he  almost 
speaks.  Who  was 
he?  Can  anybody 
name  him  now  ? 
No  answer  ;  and 
in  that  silence  lies 
the  pathos  of 
loving  and  losing, 
and  the  inalien- 
able romance  of 
the  unknown. 
Here,  No.  2,  is  the  first  ivory  miniature  I  acquired — 
seen  in  a  shop  window  in  a  paved  alley  off  St.  Martin's 
Lane  and  bought  for  seven  shillings  ;  again  "  Pasquier," 
the  artist's  name,  is  the  only  ostensible  trace.  This 
Pasquier,  the  younger,  was  not  a  great  miniaturist,  and 
some  of  the  work  is  defective,  but  he  painted  the  face 
quite  exquisitely — and  one  test  of  a  good  miniature  is  the 
treatment  of  the  lips  and  eyes.  These  eyes  are  large 
and  blue,  the  nose  is  hooked  and  long,  the  lips  are  set  ; 
who  was  she?  She  was  a  personage  of  great  import- 
4 


CAN   IT  STILL  BE  DONE 

ance  in    her   day  ;     I   have  discovered  who  she  was. 
The  dress  hinted  at  the  period,  and  the  head-dress  put 
me  on  the  track.     I  took  the  miniature  to  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery  and  studied  Lawrence's  great  portrait 
of     Caroline      of 
Brunswick  there  ; 
Pasquier    showed 
her  as   she    must 
have    been   about 
1 797,  when  newly 
married  ;     before 
she  bloomed   into 
what  she  was  when 
Lawrence  painted 
her,    or    blowsed 
into   what    she 
looks  like  in  this, 
No.  3,  a  miniature 
in    oils   which    is 
powerful   in   por- 
traiture   and  rich  No.  3 
in  colour  ;  it  cost 

me  4s.  6d.  at  Turnham  Green,  by  the  by.  This  shows 
her  older,  and  froward  in  her  woe,  but  the  hard  eyes  are 
the  same ;  and  here  in  her  head-dress  are  the  Prince  of 
Wales'  feathers  again  ;  so  that  both  must  have  been 
painted  before  1821,  when  George  IV  was  crowned. 

ROMANCE  AND  PATHOS  AND  ART 

A  collector  bends  over  the  trays  in  his  cabinet  and 
marvels  how  one  brief  human  being  could  so  perpetuate 

5 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
he  looks  of  another ;  here  upon  thin  planes  of  ivory, 
metal,  and  card,  the  miracle  of  life  persists,  to  the  life. 
Romance  and  pathos,  biography  and  art.  life,  love,  and 
loss  are  gathered  here  in  little,  upon  these  small  ovals, 
these  flattened  eggs.  But  the  collector  cannot  question 
them  to  much  avail.  The  sitters  five  on,  but  dumbly ; 
even  die  women  are  mute.  Red  lips,  who  kissed  ye 
best?  No  answer.  Hand  on  the  rapier,  how  often 
did  you  embrue?  Not  even  a  frown.  Periwigged 
peer  with  a  face  Eke  Jacob's  (the  inventor  of  wigs), 
what  is  the  shameful  truth  about  that  expedition  to  the 
Lowlands  ?  Not  even  a  curse.  There  come  no  replies 
from  these*"  noting  likenesses  " ;  upon  the  ambitions, 
hopes,  intrigues,  perils,  and  joys  of  their  lives  they  are 
dumb. 

These  portraits  for  galleries  in  Lalliput  are  rich  in 
tradition,  however;  miniatures  make  their  disappear- 
ances, as  the  six  or  seven  of  Cromwell  that  were  painted 
by  ^tfffi""J  Cooper,  the  Rembrandt  of  miniaturists,  had 
to  do  when  the  Restoration  took  place.  Less  famous 
miniatures  than  those  make  their  disappearances,  also, 
from  period  to  period ;  emerging  again  in  the  most 
unlikely  places,  and  giving  the  searching  collector  his 
chance.  And  many  of  them  are  eloquent  with  psycho- 
logy, with  the  character  of  the  sitter — the  only  prophecy 
that  comes  true.  In  the  Rijks  Museum  at  Amsterdam 
you  may  study  a  miniature  by  Hoskins  which  is  probably 
the  most  life-like  portrait  of  Charles  I ;  for  in  the 
mouth,  the  lips,  the  forehead,  the  colour  of  the  skin, 
and  the  pouches  under  the  eyes  the  observant  may  read 
secrets  and  understand  why  the  tragedy  of  Charles  I 
6 


CAN  IT  STILL  BE  DONE 

befell.  It  was  Hosidns,  again,  who  depicted  Queen 
Henrietta  Maria  as  what  she  must  have  been — as  what 
the  daughter  of  Henri  Quatre  and  a  Medicis  mother 
could  hardly  help  but  be. 

Faces  vary,  of  course,  even  the  bony  framework  of 
faces  varies  infinitely ;  in  the  shape  of  the  brows,  the 
depth  of  the  eye-sockets,  the  arch  of  the  nose,  and  the 
angle  of  die  lower  jaw.  no  two  skulls  were  ever  quite 
alike.  More  than  forty  muscles  cover  this  framework, 
and  each  movement  of  each  muscle  is  expressed  exter- 
nally, revealing  emotions,  habits,  prepossessions  and 
customary  modes  of  feeling  or  thought.  These  affect 
the  skin,  and  therefore  the  wrinkles  themselves  are 
records  of  past  passions,  fixed  ideas,  and  character 
formation ;  good  miniaturists  know  and  show  (as  the 
illustrations  in  this  book  display)  how  seldom  it  is  that 
even  the  two  eyes  in  the  same  head  are  quite  alike.  A 
miniature  may  thus  be  made  biographical,  and  a  number 
of  miniatures,  taken  together,  such  as  Holbein's  or 
Cooper's,  may  be  said  to  depict  the  human  tendencies 
of  the  time. 


II.  WHERE  AND  HOW  COLLECTING 
MINIATURES  CAN  BE  DONE 

THERE  are  several  hows  and  many  wheres.  From 
time  to  time  collections  of  old  miniatures  are 
dispersed  under  the  hammer,  and  some  of 
these  find  their  way  into  quite  small  dealers'  shops. 
Then  comes  the  collector's  opportunity — if,  indeed, 
he  has  not  already  taken  that  by  going  to  the  auction 
room  beforehand  on  "  view  day,"  and  arranging  with 
some  frequenter  of  that  particular  room  to  bid  for  him 
vicariously,  telling  him  exactly  which  to  bid  for  and 
up  to  what  limit  of  price.  Often,  too,  small  collections 
of  miniatures  are  sold  to  dealers  by  what  is  called  private 
treaty,  and  for  a  few  days  the  purchasing  dealer's  shop 
window  affords  you  your  chance. 

THE  SEVERAL  HUNDRED  MINIATURES 

Not  long  ago  a  baronet's  collection  of  several  hundred 
miniatures  came  under  the  hammer.  They  were  not 
heirlooms  ;  they  had  been  collected  during  his  lifetime, 
and  therefore  they  could  be  sold.  Here  is  a  miniature, 
No.  4,  which  used  to  belong  to  the  baronet  ;  I  bought 
it  out  of  a  shop  in  Bloomsbury  for  £3. 

The  baronet  had  been  an  indefatigable  collector. 
Often  he  bought  at  high  prices,  for  he  was  wealthy, 
but  also  he  searched  and  foraged  for  himself,  not  merely 

8 


HOW  COLLECTING  CAN  BE  DONE 

waiting  for  dealers  to  approach  him  with  offers  ;  and 
in  hunting  he  often  came  upon  good  old  miniatures 
which  had  been  separated  from  their  original  frames. 
Every  foraging  collector  does  that,  and  not  seldom  a 
frameless  miniature  affords  him  one  of  his  best  bargains. 
Miniature  -  frames  in 
precious  metal  set  with 
gems  are  coveted  by 
wealthy  people  and 
bought  away  from  the 
miniatures  sometimes, 
which  then  lie  frame- 
less,  or  are  fitted  with 
a  trumpery  new  setting, 
and  as  the  dealer  has 
made  his  profit  on  the 
old  frame,  he  will  let  the 
little  picture  go  cheap. 

THE  PORTRAIT 
BOOKS 

What  the  baronet 
did  in  these  cases  was 
to  enclose  the  miniature  and  its  more  or  less  trumpery 
frame  within  a  specially  made  and  inscribed  ormolu 
setting  of  pseudo-Louis  Qumze  design,  as  here  shown, 
No.  4  ;  upon  this  he  had  the  names  of  the  sitter  and  the 
artist  engraved.  In  the  present  example,  the  inscrip- 
tion is  "  David  Hume,  author  of  The  History  of  England, 
1711-1776.  By  Bernard  Lens."  I  am  not  so  sure  about 
who  the  artist  was  as  the  baronet  seems  to  have  been,  and 

9 


No.  4 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

the  ascription  is  confused  by  the  fact  that  there  were  in 
successive  generations  three  miniaturists  of  the  name 
of  Bernard  Lens.  But  names  are  often  a  difficulty  in  the 
matter.  As  every  collector  will  do,  the  baronet  came 
upon  desirable  miniature  portraits  of  persons  unnamed, 
but  he  dealt  with  that  difficulty  systematically,  by 
collecting  copper-plate,  etched,  mezzotint,  lithograph, 
or  other  paper  portraits  of  some  thousands  of  persons 
of  consequence  in  their  day,  who  lived  during  the 
seventeenth  or  eighteenth  century,  and  these  he  had 
bound  up  together.  I  have  seen  three  of  these  "  por- 
trait books  "  of  his.  When  he  bought  an  anonymous 
miniature,  the  material  upon  which  it  was  painted  gave 
a  clue  to  its  date,  and  so  did  the  costume  and  the 
coiffure  ;  he  could  turn  to  his  portrait  books,  compare 
features  and  dress,  and  often  arrive  at  the  name. 

WHEN  A  DEALER  IS  GIVING  UP  BUSINESS 

I  am  writing  now  of  the  genuine  chances  which  a 
collector  finds.  In  the  next  chapter  I  will  deal  with 
fraudulent  copies  of  old  miniatures,  but  for  the  present 
let  us  consider  the  real.  Another  kind  of  opportunity 
for  a  collector  occurs  when  a  curio-dealer  is  about  to 
give  up  business  and  retire  upon  a  competency.  Seldom 
he  sends  his  stock  en  bloc  to  the  auction  rooms,  for  that 
is  a  method  of  sale  which  does  not  pay  him  very  well  ; 
he  prefers  to  dispose  of  his  possessions  gradually,  during 
a  year  or  so  previous  to  actually  closing,  and  he  "  marks 
them  down,"  as  he  calls  it,  in  a  very  tempting  way.  If 
one  of  the  miniatures  in  stock  be  frameless,  he  will  let 
it  go  for  very  little,  for  he  considers  himself  to  be 
10 


HOW  COLLECTING  CAN  BE  DONE 

realizing  "  by  selling  off.  The  ordinary,  general 
curio-dealer  does  not  understand  miniatures  so  well  as 
he  does  other  classes  of  the  articles  he  deals  in,  and 
this  is  one  reason  why  picking  up  good  old  miniatures 
cheaply  can  still  be  done. 

THE  BARROW  AND  "  THE  STONES  " 

But  one  also  hunts  elsewhere.  I  own  a  good  miniature 
of  the  Plimer  school  and  period,  bought  for  12s.  6d. 
off  a  barrow  in  a  street  market  near  Soho  ;  I  own 
a  contemporary  miniature  of  the  young  Bonaparte, 
done  upon  soft  Sevres  porcelain,  which  I  bought  for 
7s.  6d.  in  the  Caledonian  Market  ;  I  also  purchased  a 
fine  small  neck  miniature,  framed  in  gold,  for  24s. 
there.  One  never  should  pass  a  broker's  barrow  in  a 
street  market  without  scanning  it,  for  a  prize  will  be 
found  on  it  soon  or  late.  As  for  "  the  Market,"  whither 
some  500  little  dealers  and  brokers  bring  their  more 
portable  possessions,  laying  them  out  upon  "  the  stones," 
as  they  call  the  paved  flooring  of  the  Caledonian  Meat 
Market,  every  Friday,  and  on  Fridays  only,  though  this 
has  ceased  to  be  a  Tom  Tiddler's  ground  of  bargains, 
a  picker-up  of  old  miniatures  should  not  fail  to  go 
searching  there.  He  should  arrive  soon  after  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  not  too  early  for  the  vans  and 
trolleys  to  have  been  emptied  of  the  goods,  and  not  so 
late  as  to  find  that  dealers  and  other  collectors  who 
knowingly  hunt  "  the  stones  "  have  already  purchased 
the  best. 


11 


COLLECTING   OLD    MINIATURES 

THE  PAWNSHOPS 

A  pawnbroker's  may  still  be  a  place  in  which  you 
may  hunt  with  much  profit,  though  most  pawnbrokers 
now  deal  in  what  is  called  "  the  modern  antique,"  mere 
tawdry  stuff — pacotille.  But  in  the  City,  the  West  End, 
Bloomsbury,  Chelsea,  Hampstead,  and  near  every 
residential  quarter  of  London,  as  in  every  small  town 
near,  and  in  every  suburb  except  those  which  the 
Great  Eastern  Railway  traverses,  pawnbrokers  may  be 
found  who  still  carry  on  the  tradition,  begun  early  in 
the  eighteenth  century  perhaps,  of  lending  cash  on 
objects  of  art.  They  advance  the  money  with  caution, 
and  can  therefore  sell  the  unredeemed  pledges  at 
reasonable  prices,  and  often  do.  It  was  in  a  West  End 
pawnshop  window  that  I  saw  a  Holbemesque  miniature 
which  was  sold  me  for  55s.  It  was  in  a  Marylebone 
pawnbroker's  glass  counter-case  that  I  found  a  miniature 
of  Mme.  de  Chatelux,  by  Dupuis,  fellow  but  not 
duplicate  of  one  in  the  Jodrell  collection  on  view  at  the 
South  Kensington  Museum  at  the  time  ;  it  cost  me 
17s.  6d.  frameless. 

THE  SMALLER  AUCTION  ROOMS 

With  miniatures,  as  with  every  "  line  "  in  collecting, 
chances  are  found  in  the  smaller  auction  rooms  when  a 
miscellaneous  sale  is  going  on  ;  or,  the  day  before  it 
begins,  indeed,  stepping  in  and  looking  round,  you  may 
see  something  desirable  and  buy  it  right  out,  which  can 
be  done  if  the  catalogue  of  the  sale  has  not  yet  been 
printed  off.  But  most  of  the  miniatures  sold  in  the 

12 


HOW  COLLECTING  CAN  BE  DONE 

smaller  auction  sales  are  counterfeits,  or  "  the  modern 
antique,"  or  "  Mid  Victorian  " — that  is,  of  dates  and 
kinds  which  collectors  disdain. 

THE  SMALL  JEWELLER'S  SHOP 

The  small  jeweller's  shop  is  a  good  place  to  hunt  in. 
I  do  not  mean  the  little  shop  that  is  hung  with  brand 
new  cheap  jewellery  and  watches,  but  the  "  watchmaker 
and  jeweller's  "  little  place,  where  good  craftsmanship 
goes  on,  and  repairing  is  the  stand-by  of  the  business, 
buying  and  selling  of  old  jewellery,  as  well  as  of  new, 
being  an  occasional  and  subsidiary  thing.  In  one  such 
place,  I  bought  for  15s.  a  charming  French  miniature 
of  the  Directoire  period  ;  in  another,  I  found  an  eye- 
mmiature,  though  eye-miniatures  are  excessively  rare. 

MINIATURE  FRAMES 

A  working  jeweller's  shop  is  also  a  place  in  which  to 
come  upon  old  miniature-frames  empty.  In  a  small 
Surrey  town  I  found  a  large  one,  fine  old  paste  and  old 
silver,  perfect,  price  £1  5s.  It  is  always  wise  to  acquire 
a  good  old  frame,  ready  for  some  frameless  old  miniature 
that  may  turn  up,  though  one  cannot  hope  always  to 
match  frame  with  picture  in  exact  period  or  style,  of 
course. 

One  characteristic  eighteenth-century  frame  is  shown 
m  No.  23  :  at  the  back,  hair  fills  the  whole  ova)  ;  in 
front,  between  the  two  oval  gold  rims,  is  Bristol  blue 
glass,  with  copper  or  gold  foil  under  it ;  sometimes  the 
miniature  occupies  the  other  side,  and  hair  the  smaller 
oval  ;  in  that  case  Bristol  opal  glass  is  the  backing  for 

13 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
the  hair.  Other  frames,  typical  of  the  period,  are  seen 
in  Nos.  22  and  24. 

There  is  no  need  for  a  collector  to  re-frame  his  minia- 
tures elaborately,  as  the  baronet  did,  but  often  an  empty 
old  frame  can  be  neatly  adapted  to  a  loose  old  miniature. 
One  test  for  a  miniature  which  I  have  discovered  in 
collecting  is  this,  however, — does  the  miniature  look 
even  better  when  out  of  its  frame  than  when  in  it  ?  If 
so,  the  miniature  is  almost  sure  to  be  a  particularly 
fine  bit  of  work.  But  if  the  miniature  is  of  the  third  or 
fourth  order  of  quality,  a  good  frame,  even  a  brand  new 
one,  will  wonderfully  add  to  the  effect  of  it.  Of  course 
a  new  gold  frame  is  the  most  effective  usually,  but  there 
are  dainty  new  frames  in  white  enamel  to  be  had 
cheaply,  which  go  well  with  miniatures  of  eighteenth- 
century  women — though  they  would  be  out  of  keeping 
with  seventeenth-century  miniatures,  by  the  by. 

HANGING  ON  SCREENS 

So  that,  in  one  place  and  way  or  another,  if  you  are 
a  man,  and  like  to  get  old  miniatures  together  into  a 
cabinet,  it  can  still  be  done  ;  or  if  you  are  a  woman, 
and  like  to  wear  miniatures  as  brooches  or  pendants, 
or  to  hang  them  upon  a  boudoir  screen,  it  can  be  done. 
But  I  do  not  advise  the  hanging  of  miniatures  on  screens  ; 
they  should  be  kept  from  the  air,  enclosed  in  cabinets, 
and  if  the  cabinets  have  glass  tops  they  should  not 
be  exposed  to  direct  sunshine,  or  be  placed  near  the 
fire-place.  In  a  rectory  drawing-room  I  once  saw  two 
frames,  of  six  miniatures  each,  hanging  over  the  mantel- 
piece ;  the  value  of  the  miniatures  would  be  £1000, 

14 


HOW  COLLECTING  CAN  BE  DONE 

and  every  time  the  fire  was  lit  the  value  diminished  ; 
heat  and  damp  are  enemies  of  miniatures,  the  first 
producing  cracks  and  peeling,  the  second  inducing 
mould. 

But  in  all  these  places  and  ways  of  collecting  there 
are  dangers  that  lie  in  wait.  Counterfeits  which  deceive 
and  copies  which  delude  lie  ready  for  the  collector, 
either  artfully  prepared  for  him  or  honestly  pressed 
upon  him  by  vendors  who  confess  themselves  to  be  "  no 
judges."  Of  these  perils  I  will  write  next. 


15 


III.  COUNTERFEITS  AND  THEIR 
DETECTION 

BEFORE   coming   to  the    several    classes   of  old 
miniatures,  and    the    methods  of  recognizing 
and    classifying    them,   it   is  well  to  consider 
how  one  may  detect  the  fraudulent  or  other  modern 
copies  of  the  old.     No  doubt  a  fine  miniature,  whatever 
its  date,  is  recognizable  by  the  skill  of  its  art  ;   but  fine 
painting  may  be  put  into  modern  miniatures  offered 
you  as  old  ones,  and,  therefore,  the  presence  of  good 
art  cannot  be  the  only  test  applied  to  a  skilful  fraud. 

A  collector  who  searches  in  some  of  the  quarters  I 
have  mentioned  will  come  upon  many  modern  daubs, 
done  straightforwardly,  but  clumsily,  and  offered  to 
shopkeepers  as  articles  of  commerce.  These  the 
poverty  of  the  workmanship  and  the  excessive  use  of 
Chinese  white  will  betray.  The  drawing  will  be  poor, 
and  the  stippling  of  the  colour  will  lack  any  decent 
degree  of  finish.  There  is  little  excuse  for  the  collector 
being  taken  in  by  one  of  these,  if  "  Is  this  good  work- 
manship, fine  art,  clever  painting  ?  "  he  asks  himself, 
as  he  scans  the  thing  with  a  magnifying  lens.  But  he 
will  also  come  upon  more  or  less  cleverly  done  counter- 
feits, out  and  out  frauds  intended  to  delude,  and  in 
these  the  workmanship  may  be  fairly  good.  I  think  it 
is  impossible  for  a  beginner  not  to  be  taken  in  by  these 

16 


COUNTERFEITS    AND   DETECTION 

once  or  twice.  His  very  zest  and  enthusiasm  in  collect- 
ing will  lead  him  into  such  mistakes.  Yet  he  will  learn 
from  them,  of  course,  and,  therefore,  a  beginner  should 
not  be  too  chary  of  buying,  even  though  he  thus  acquires 
a  number  of  unimportant  miniatures  and  a  few  that  are 
frauds.  The  more 

he  makes  a   strong  W 

pocket  lens  his 
companion  and  uses 
it,  the  less  his  risk 
of  being  taken  in. 
But  the  point  is — 
what  signs  and 
symptoms  of  fraud 
to  expect  in  a  false 
miniature,  and  to 
look  for,  as  well  as 
what  evidences  of 
clumsy  workman- 
ship and  bad  art  ? 

PICTURE  OF  A 
CLEVER  FRAUD 

No.    5    purports 

to  be  a  Romney  miniature  of  Lady  Hamilton.  The 
painting  of  it  is  broad  and  thin  in  Romney 's  style, 
the  tinting  of  the  cheeks,  lips,  and  eyes  is  clever, 
the  shadows  and  lights  seem  skilfully  put  in,  and 
one  would  think  this  a  very  desirable  old  miniature 
indeed.  Yet  it  is  a  fraud  right  through.  It  is  done 
on  celluloid,  that  counterfeits  ivory.  Upon  this  false 
B  17 


No.  5 


COLLECTING    OLD   MINIATURES 

surface  the  outlines  and  shadows  of  the  face  and  bust 
were  printed,  probably  by  photo-lithography,  in  the 
fewest  possible  strokes  and  lines  of  bluish  black,  so  that, 
with  the  minimum  of  labour,  a  skilful  brush  could 
fetch  out  broad  lights  and  darks  in  the  hair,  the 
shoulders,  and  the  billowy  scarf.  Then  the  background 
was  stippled  a  little,  after  being  washed  with  bluish 
white.  The  artist  nowhere  fell  into  the  duffer's  error 
of  caking  Chinese  white  on  crudely ;  he  or  she  must 
have  been  a  skilful  miniaturist,  capable  of  working 
rapidly  and  cheaply,  so  as  to  produce  a  tempting 
counterfeit  for  sale  at  a  low  price. 

The  lens  detects  the  photographic  basis,  however, 
by  the  grain  of  the  printing  ink,  which  shows  even 
through  the  flesh  tints.  Moreover,  Romney  is  not 
known  to  have  painted  Lady  Hamilton  in  miniature, 
and  if  he  did  not,  reflection  ought  to  suggest  that  this 
could  hardly  be  a  contemporary  production,  and  is 
probably  a  copy  in  small  of  one  of  Romney 's  canvas 
and  life-size  heads.  And  though  copying,  in  miniature, 
heads  or  figures  out  of  famous  pictures  is  a  legitimate 
branch  of  art,  it  does  not  produce  a  genuine,  con- 
temporary portrait  taken  of  a  sitter,  which  is  what 
almost  every  old  miniature  purports  to  be. 

COPIED  FROM  OLD  PRINTS 

Here,  No.  6,  is  quite  a  taking  large  miniature,  in  a 
copy  of  an  old  frame  set  with  turquoises. 

The  calash  which  this  pretty  woman  wears  seems  to 
date  the  work  to  some  extent,  but  the  ivory  is  new,  and 
in  fact  the  whole  miniature  is  a  copy,  taken  from  an 
18 


COUNTERFEITS    AND    DETECTION 

eighteenth-century  print  of  a  Duchess  of  Manchester, 

a  black  and  white  print,  not  a  colour-print.     Yet  the 

copier  put  colour  into  his  work,  which  is  not  bad  work 

so  far  as  the  face, 

neck   and   the 

pearls  go  ;  but  the 

lack  of   sincerity, 

and  of  consequent 

artistic  finish  and 

devotion     to    the 

job,    are   seen    in 

the  crudity  of  the 

painting     of     the 

calash,  and  in  the 

hair. 

THE  "  ENGLE- 
HEART  "  FRAUD 

Most  modern 
copies  of  old 
miniatures  imitate 
the  style  of  No  6 

Plimer,  but  Engle- 

heart's  conception  of  woman's  loveliness  is  also  a 
favourite  model  for  the  frauds.  No.  7  is  an  example 
of  the  kind  of  fraud  that  ought  hardly  to  take  even 
a  beginner  in.  It  is  painted,  not  printed  at  all, 
and  on  "  real  ivory."  Crude  Chinese  white  has 
hardly  been  used  on  it,  except  for  the  pearls.  The 
critical  points — eyes  and  lips — have  been  rather  nicely 
painted  in,  though  the  eyes  lack  the  characteristic 

19 


COLLECTING    OLD   MINIATURES 

"  Engleheart  "  brilliancy.  But  the  stippling  is  coarse 
and  hasty  and  the  bust  is  out  of  drawing.  The  counter- 
feiter had  never  learned  to  "  draw  "  (in  the  sense  in 
which  artists  use  that  phrase  when  they  mean  "  to  draw 
the  figure  and  the  attitude  correctly  "),  though  George 

Engleheart  was  of 
all  eighteenth-cen- 
tury miniaturists 
the  one  who  could 
best  "  draw." 

Further,  the  lens 
reveals  that  the 
flesh  tints  and  the 
shadows  have  been 
coarsely  painted  in. 
George  Engle- 
heart, though  he 
did  not  finick  and 
stipple  so  neatly  as 
some  of  his  con- 
temporaries did, 
left  nothing  coarse, 
rough,  and  unfinished  in  his  work.  He  adopted 
a  certain  characteristic  way  of  representing  powdered 
hair,  which  the  forger  attempted  to  imitate  ;  but  the 
lens  reveals  that  a  cloud  of  greyish  tint  having  been 
washed  on  around  the  face,  the  forger  put  in  a  few 
score  curving  lines  and  left  it  at  that.  Then  the 
counterfeit,  bearing  the  name  of  "  Mrs.  Dalrymple 
Ellis  "  at  the  back,  was  offered  for  sale  as  old. 


No.  7 


20 


COUNTERFEITS   AND    DETECTION 

THE  CHINESE  WHITE  TEST 

Chinese  white  is  a  thick,  metallic  pigment,  rather 
resembling  the  white  lead  which  house  painters  use. 
Chinese  white  was  no  doubt  an  element  in  the  palettes 
of  eighteenth-century  miniaturists,  used  for  mixing  in 
with  transparent  tint  to  make  what  is  called  "  body 
colour,"  colour  which  is  opaque.  But  they  seldom  laid 
on  Chinese  white  in  the  crude,  except  when  painting 
lace  or  pearls  upon  dark  or  flesh  colours,  and  they  seldom 
left  it  standing  up  thickly,  as  if  encrusted.  Now  one 
seldom  sees  a  fraudulent  miniature  in  which  Chinese 
white  is  not  crudely  present.  Rapid  or  unskilful 
copyists  find  the  pigment  convenient  for  rendering  the 
effect  of  lace,  white  frills,  or  pearls,  and  they  lay  it  on 
in  a  solid,  caked-up  way ;  which,  whenever  existent  in 
old  miniatures,  has  in  them  been  softened  by  time  ;  note 
the  bodice  in  No.  26. 

THE  GOLD  BEATERS'-SKIN  FRAUD 

To  keep  out  damp  and  dust,  which  injure  miniatures, 
gold-beaters'-skin,  a  thin  but  tough  integument,  was 
wrapped  about  the  old  ones  when  they  were  new,  the 
back  edges  of  the  piece  of  skin  being  stuck  down  over 
and  upon  the  front  edges  of  the  piece  of  ivory.  In  time 
this  stuff,  if  exposed  to  the  air  meanwhile,  may  turn 
a  dark  brown  colour,  and,  therefore,  the  presence  of 
dark  brown  gold-beaters'-skin  around  a  frameless 
miniature  is  usually  an  evidence  of  age.  But  this  colour 
may  be  counterfeited.  In  No.  8  is  shown  the  look  of 
the  back  of  a  miniature  covered  with  gold-beaters'-skin 

21 


COLLECTING   OLD    MINIATURES 

as  dark  and  wrinkled  as  it  well  can  be  ;  but  under  it  the 
ivory  is  still  whitish — see  the  part  exposed  by  the  tear 
— and  when  one  examines  the  little  portrait  itself,  the 

bad  drawing,  the 
clumsy  limning, 
and  the  caked 
Chinese  white, 
show  it  to  be  a 
weak  and  valueless 
affair  not  forty 
'-••A  years  old. 

THE  USE  OF  A 
LENS 

A  strong  little 
pocket  lens  can  pro- 
tect a  collector  from 
delusions  which 
safely  confront  the 
naked  eye.  It  is 
not  enough  that  one 
should  like  the  look 
of  a  miniature  when 
seen  by  the  naked  eye  only,  or  through  ordinary 
glasses.  The  lens  should  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
every  part  of  the  workmanship  of  the  painting,  and 
particularly  upon  the  eyes,  eyebrows,  lips,  nose,  and 
chin.  The  lens  should  search  not  merely  for  the  absence 
of  crude  Chinese  white,  but  for  the  presence  of  fluent, 
easy,  masterly  art.  The  art  is,  I  repeat,  the  chief  test 
of  genuineness  and  value  in  a  miniature.  There  has 

22 


No.  8 


COUNTERFEITS  AND  DETECTION 

been  no  good  painter  in  anything,  oil  or  water-colour, 
life  size  or  in  the  small,  whose  brush  moved  in  a  con- 
strained, uncertain,  niggling,  laborious  way. 

Many  old  miniaturists  produced  their  flesh  effects 
by  stippling — that  is,  by  an  infinitude  of  the  tiniest 
possible  touches,  so  fine  and  so  many  that  it  almost 
makes  one  suppose  that  they  had  some  unusual  quality 
of  minute  sight  in  their  eyes.  Well,  the  lens  will  show 
if  the  stippling  be  of  that  kind,  or  if  it  was  crudely 
and  hastily  put  in,  with  touches  comparatively  large. 
Other  old  miniaturists  chose  to  paint  in  the  flesh  more 
boldly,  with  strokes  rather  than  with  stipples,  but  even 
then  the  strokes  were  small.  If  the  old  miniaturist 
used  much  "  modelling  " — that  is,  contrasts  of  light 
and  shadow,  as  well  as  of  colour,  to  show  the  flesh  of 
the  sitter's  face  as  it  really  looked,  and  not  as  such 
fashionable  flatterers  as  Cosway  represented  it — then  the 
bold  modelling  will  show  up  under  the  lens  as  artistic, 
fine,  and  masterly,  quite  different  from  the  few  dauby 
touches  and  strokes  of  the  copyist  or  the  counterfeiter, 
who  is  too  imperfect  an  artist  to  earn  a  living  as  a 
miniaturist  of  people  alive  to-day. 

THE  FINELY  PAINTED  FRAUDS 

Yet  there  are  really  clever  artists  at  work  counter- 
feiting old  miniatures.  I  think  most  of  them  are 
French.  In  the  Rue  de  Rivoli  at  Paris  hundreds  of 
miniatures  which  are  really  well  done,  but  were  done  a 
few  years  ago  only,  lie  in  wait  for  English  buyers,  as 
"  antiques."  So  do  others  of  the  kind  and  quality  in 
English  curio  shops,  jewellers'  shops,  and  elsewhere. 

23 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

Often  these  are  handsomely  framed  in  gold,  or  let  into 
expensively  made  snuff-boxes  or  bon-bon  or  powder 
boxes  of  gold  or  ivory,  or  ivory  and  tortoiseshell  ;  and 
then  a  high  price  is  asked  for  them  accordingly.  Some- 
times these  counterfeits  are  done  in  enamel,  even,  and 
then  the  price  is  high  indeed.  It  is  only  the  moneyed 
amateur  who  can  bite  at  these  baits  and  be  caught, 
but  he  often  is.  I  know  that  sometimes  a  cheaply 
painted  miniature  is  let  into  a  cheap  old  wooden  or 
papier-mache  powder  box  or  snuff-box,  and  then  the 
picking-up  collector's  pocket  and  judgment  may  be  in 
danger  ;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  really  able  and  deceptive 
forgeries  are  offered  for  the  rich.  The  best  safeguard 
for  them  is  to  demand  a  guarantee,  and,  if  possible,  a 
pedigree,  for  objets  d'art  of  great  value  as  well  as  beauty 
have  not  very  often  been  left  lying  around  loose  and  lost 
to  account. 


24 


IV.  CLASSES  OF  MINIATURES 

IT  has  now  been  shown,  I  hope,  that  collecting  old 
miniatures  can  still  be  done  ;    also  where  it  may 
be  done,  and  with  what  precautions  it  should  be 
done.     The  next  consideration  is  the  kinds  and  classes 
of  miniatures  which  may  be  looked  for. 

DEFINITION  OF  A  MINIATURE 

First  of  all,  what  is  a  miniature  ?  If  you  turn  to  the 
dictionaries  you  get  such  answers  as  these  : 

1 .  A  painting,  generally  a  portrait,  of  small  dimensions, 
executed  on  ivory,  vellum,  or  paper. 

2.  Literally,    a    painting   executed    in    minium   (ver- 
milion).    Any   small    picture,   and    especially   a   small 
portrait. 

3.  A  minute  picture,  whether  delineating  landscape 
or  figures,  or  a  copy  of  a  larger  picture. 

The  promoters  of  a  famous  exhibition  of  miniatures 
held  in  London  in  1865  endeavoured  to  define  the  word, 
and  did  so  by  ruling,  in  effect,  that  miniatures  are  works 
of  fine  art  drawn  to  a  small  scale,  on  any  material,  in 
any  medium — i.e.,  any  liquid  in  which  pigments  are 
ground — and  in  any  artistic  style  ;  a  miniature  may 
represent  a  head,  a  head  and  bust,  a  half-length  of  the 
sitter,  a  full  length,  or  a  group,  but  must  do  so  in  small  ; 
the  promoters  of  the  exhibition  therefore  decided  to 

25 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
accept  all  such  works  of  fine  art  as  were  drawn  to  a 
small  scale,  and  were  miniature  in  character.  But  they 
ruled  out  miniatures  on  porcelain  ;  which  is  why,  I 
suppose,  miniatures  on  porcelain  are  little  collected  yet, 
though  I  advise  the  neglect  of  that  exclusion,  and  the 
collecting  of  miniatures  on  (not  in)  porcelain  which  are 
fine  as  portraits,  or  in  art.  A  dealer's  term  now  heard 
for  toy  tea-sets  and  other  very  small  ceramic  objects 
is  "  miniatures,"  and  misleading,  of  course  ;  but  it  shows 
how  difficult  a  clear  and  comprehensive  definition  of 
the  object  called  a  miniature  is.  Thus  the  words  "  in 
any  medium,"  if  strictly  interpreted,  would  rule  out 
small  portraits  done  by  lead  pencil,  or  crayon,  and 
miniatures  done  in  wax  or  needlework,  or  engraved  on 
glass,  or  cut  in  ivory  or  wood. 

The  collector  finds  no  difficulty  in  practical  definition, 
however.  The  question  he  puts  to  himself  is,  "  Has  a 
good  artist  been  at  work  on  this  small  or  smallish, 
round,  oval,  square,  or  other  shaped  piece  of  material  ?  " 
The  main  distinction,  and  perhaps  the  only  true  one, 
is  between  portrait  miniatures  and  other  works  of  art 
in  small.  Portrait  miniatures  may  represent  one  person 
only,  or  more  than  one  person  together  ;  and  portrait 
miniatures  may  be  contemporary,  i.e.,  done  from  the 
live  sitter,  or  from  some  other  portrait  of  him  or  her. 
But  there  may  also  be  miniatures  which  picture  imagined 
persons  or  embodied  qualities,  such  as  Peter  Oliver's 
"  St.  John  "  or  Samuel  Shelley's  small  figure  of 
"  Chastity."  Most  collectors  of  miniatures  limit  their 
pursuit  to  contemporary  portraits,  done  from  live 
sitters  ;  others  admit  any  small  representation  done  by 

26 


CLASSES   OF  MINIATURES 

a  good  miniaturist.  Perhaps  I  may  be  permitted  to 
recommend  a  preference  for  portraits,  but  also  a  wide 
and  inclusive  collecting,  not  pedantically  confined  or 
defined . 

CLASSIFICATION  BY  MATERIAL  WORKED  ON 

But  if  a  classification  of  miniatures  be  asked  for,  it 
can  best  be  made  according  to  the  materials  worked 
on — the  particular  "  canvas  "  of  each  little  picture,  so 
to  speak,  and  this  will  provide  a  convenient  order  for 
the  chapters  in  this  book.  So,  arranging  the  chief 
materials  as  nearly  as  may  be  in  order  of  date  of  general 
use,  we  get  the  following  list  : 

1 .  Miniatures  on  vellum        4.  Miniatures  on  paper 

2.  Miniatures    on    metal        5.  Miniatures  on  ivory 

3.  Miniatures  on  cardboard    6.  Miniatures  on  porcelain. 

A  cabinet  which  includes  a  good  example  or  more 
than  one,  of  each  of  these  six  classes  of  miniatures  may 
be  but  a  small  collection,  but  it  is  a  respectable  collection 
all  the  same  ;  it  displays  knowledge,  as  well  as  search 
and  acquisition  ;  it  shows  the  collector  to  understand 
the  science  of  what  he  is  doing,  and  to  have  studied  his 
hobby.  The  minor  divisions  are,  on  vellum,  the  missal 
and  the  portrait;  on  metal, the  enamelled  and  the  painted; 
on  paper,  the  illuminated  in  early  printed  books  and  the 
separate  bit  of  paper  painted ;  on  ivory,  the  painted 
on  and  the  sculptured  in  ;  the  sculptured  in  wood  ; 
the  engraved  or  painted  on  glass  ;  the  stitched  or 
painted  in  needlework  ;  and  a  collection  which  includes 
examples  of  these  also  may  be  regarded  as  complete. 

27 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
In  number  of  miniatures,  or  in  representation  of  the 
work  of  every  miniaturist,  no  collection  can  be  complete, 
of  course,  which  is  one  reason  why  the  impression 
obtained  that  collecting  old  miniatures  was  a  hobby  of 
the  past,  that  could  no  longer  be  done.  In  point  of  fact, 
however,  miniature  collecting  did  not  become  much  of  a 

hobby  in  England  until 
Queen  Victoria  took  it 
up. 

MINIATURES  DONE 
ON  VELLUM 

The  Latin  name  for 
a  pigment  made  from 
red  lead  was  minium  ; 
red  was  the  colour  used 
by  monkish  scribes 
when  penning  initial  or 
capital  letters.  When 
these  large  letters  began 
to  be  adorned  by  little 

pictures,  within  or  around  them,  the  term  "  miniatura  " 
came  into  use,  to  describe  that  particular  development  in 
the  art.  The  scribes  in  miniatura  worked  on  vellum, 
and  this  went  on  until  the  practice  of  printing  books, 
instead  of  writing  them,  began  to  be  general  ;  when, 
after  a  brief  period  during  which  the  capital  letters  of 
printed  books  were  also  adorned  in  miniatura  by  the 
brush,  the  art  of  "  illumination,"  as  it  is  now  called, 
died  out. 

Here,  No.  9,  is  a  late  example  of  the  vellum  miniature. 
28 


CLASSES   OF  MINIATURES 

done  about  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  probably  ; 
no  doubt  it  was  cut  from  some  elaborate  missal  or 
"  book  of  hours  "long  ago.  It  was  intended  to  portray 
St.  Bruno,  I  sup- 
pose. I  bought  it 
for  I  Os. 

Portrait  minia- 
tures on  vellum 
were  done  during 
the  sixteenth  and 
the  seventeenth 
centuries  ;  most  of 
Cooper's  minia- 
tures are  upon  that 
material  ;  No.  10 
is  a  late  seven- 
t  ee  n  t  h-century 
miniature  done  on 
vellum  and  framed 
in  fine  old  white 
paste.  In  its  old 

shagreen  case,  it  cost  me  £1  3s.  in  the  Vauxhali  Bridge 
Road. 

MINIATURES  DONE  ON  METAL 

During  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  much 
fine  miniature  painting  was  done  in  oils  on  copper  ; 
sometimes  it  was  done  on  silver  or  gold  ;  the  thing 
was  to  get  a  smooth,  firm  surface — in  some  known  cases 
it  was  done  on  mutton  blade-bone,  on  alabaster,  and  on 
slate.  The  Clouets  and  other  French  artists  painted 

29 


No.  10 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
on  copper,  as  well  as  on  paper ;  here,  No.  1 1 ,  is  a  small 
oil  on  copper  miniature,  meant  to  portray  Cardinal 
Richelieu,  quite  powerful  in  its  characterization  and 
pleasant  in  colouring,  though  a  little  the  worse  for  wear. 
This  is  the  miniature  referred  to  in  my  ABC  About 
Collecting  as  having  been  bought,  frameless  and  forlorn, 

for  3s.  6d.  near  St. 
Martin's  Lane.  This 
is  one  of  many  old 
miniatures  which  have 
been  taken  out  of  their 
frames  for  the  sake  of 
selling,  melting  down, 
or  dejewelling  the 
precious  old  setting. 
Such  a  dismantled  por- 
trait lies  about,  be- 
comes forgotten,  lies 
perdu,  in  dust,  and  at 
last  comes  to  light  in 
a  little  dealer's  mis- 
cellaneous tray,  to  be  snapped  up  by  the  first  collector 
who  sees  and  can  value  it.  Such  is  the  rationale  of  a 
good  many  "  finds." 

And  here,  No.  12,  is  the  Holbeinesque  miniature 
already  referred  to,  in  Chapter  II,  as  bought  out  of 
a  West  End  pawnbroker's  window.  It  is  painted 
on  gold,  and,  both  in  that  respect  and  in  the  art  of  it, 
had  received  scant  attention,  evidently  ;  not  till  I  had 
removed  old  paper  glued  to  the  back  of  it  did  I  see 
the  precious  metal  shining.  But  the  important  and 
30 


No. 


CLASSES  OF  MINIATURES 

valuable  thing  about  it,  which  made  me  buy  it,  was  the 
art  m  it,  of  course.  A  little  restoration  would  bring 
back  the  beauty  of  the  fur  on  the  shoulder,  but  the 
painting  of  the  ruff  and  of  the  hat  remains  perfect  yet. 
These  are  accessories,  however  ;  the  modelling  and 
impasto  of  the  face,  its  coloration,  the  drawing  of  the 
lips,  the  character  in 
the  eyes  and  nose, 
and  the  touching  in 
of  the  beard  and 
moustache,  display 
the  work  of  a  master 
hand  indeed.  I  make 
it  out  to  be  a  portrait 
of  "SirThos.  Wiatt, 
Kt.,"  of  whom  Hol- 
bein did  a  portrait 
sketch  on  paper, 
which  is  at  Windsor 
Castle  ;  it  certainly 
is  a  miniature  of  that  period.  As  in  other  miniatures 
by  Holbein  or  his  school,  the  light  falls  full  upon 
the  sitter,  there  is  little  shadow  ;  and  the  fitting 
of  the  subject  within  the  almost  round  oval  is  also 
typical  of  the  Holbein  style.  From  this  small  treasure 
the  contemporary  frame,  no  doubt  of  gold,  moulded 
and  cut  in  the  semblance  of  a  wreath  of  leaves  with 
fillets,  has  been  reft  away — by  what  design  or  care- 
lessness, and  when,  and  by  whom,  one  wonders  ?  The 
present  frame  is  wooden,  and  not  more  than  thirty  years 
old. 

31 


No.  12 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

Only  a  few  of  the  Holbemesque  miniatures  can  be 
certainly  ascribed  to  Holbein,  however.  He  was  the  head 
and  culmination  of  a  school  ;  he  set  the  standard,  and 
his  admirers  emulated  his  work — among  them  the  best- 
known  names  are  those  of  John  Bettes,  and  Sir  Antonio 
More,  who  painted  Queen  Mary's  face  on  a  small,  round, 

gold  plate  like  this,  by 
the  by.  "  A  speaking 
likeness,"  painted  in 
broad  light,  with  strong, 
clear  colouring  was  what 
they  aimed  at  ;  Holbein 
was  the  best  at  this,  and 
that  is  all  that  can  be  said. 
The  known  Holbein 
miniatures  are  done  in 
water-colour,  on  card- 
board, or  on  vellum 
facing  cardboard  ; 
usually  the  background 
is  blue,  and  the  painting 
is  laid  on  extremely  thinly  ;  these  known  examples  are 
inaccessible,  of  course.  But  No.  12,  though  done  in 
oils  laid  on  with  much  impasto,  is  Holbemesque  enough 
to  be  by  Holbein,  and  it  is  "  designed  on  grand 
lines  " — it  could  be  translated  into  life-size  suitably, 
and  it  has  the  medallion  effect.  To  collectors  to-day 
the  point  is  that  here  was  a  fine  sixteenth-century 
miniature,  painted  on  a  plate  of  gold,  lying  in  a  window 
among  bargain  boxes  of  cigars  and  secondhand  watches, 
on  sale  for  £2  15s.  in  June.  1914 
32 


No.  13 


CLASSES  OF  MINIATURES 

No  1 3,  a  miniature  in  gouache,  on  copper,  was  bought 
in  Southampton  Row  for  £1  10s.  By  the  finished 
painting  of  the  thick  lace  cravat  it  may  be  thought  the 
work  of  Lawrence  Crosse.  Evidently,  it  is  a  striking 
portrait,  full  of  life  and  skill. 


33 


V.  THE  TRANSITION  TO  IVORY 

MINIATURES  by  Holbein  and  his  school  were 
painted  in  oil  or  water-colour  upon  vellum, 
metal,  slate,  wood,  cardboard,    paper,    and 
bone,  but  not  upon  ivory.     Ivory  as  a  "  canvas  "  for 
miniature  painters  hardly  came  into  use  at  all  prior 
to  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne.    And  this  affords  the 
collector  a  test  as  to  the  age  and  authenticity  of  a 
miniature  which  purports  to  represent  a  person  who 
lived  during  earlier  reigns  than  Queen  Anne's. 

4  OLD  "  AND  "  CONTEMPORARY  " 

A  distinction  arises  between  "  old "  and  "  con- 
temporary," therefore.  A  miniature  portrait  of  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots,  Queen  Elizabeth,  Milton,  or  Charles  I, 
will  not  be  contemporary  if  it  was  painted  on  ivory, 
yet  it  may  be  "  old."  For  we  may  consider  as  "  old  " 
any  miniatures  painted  earlier  than  the  year  1850,  when 
photography  was  ruining  the  miniaturist's  vocation. 
Nearly  fifty  years  thereafter  were  to  pass,  during  which 
photographs  were  the  fashionable,  as  well  as  the  cheaper, 
mode  of  portraiture  ;  and  until  the  Society  of  Minia- 
turists began  to  hold  exhibitions  in  1896,  and  encourage 
good  modern  miniature  painting,  the  art  was  practically 
dead. 

An  "  old  "  miniature,  therefore,  is  one  done  before 
34 


THE  TRANSITION  TO   IVORY 

1850,  let  us  say  ;  an  old  contemporary  "  miniature 
is  one  done  from  the  life,  by  the  artist  from  the  sitter  ; 
an  "  old  "  miniature  not  "  contemporary  is  a  copy 
from  a  portrait,  or  is  an  imaginary  portrait  of  some 
person  earlier  in  date  than  the  miniaturist  was.  The 
fame  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  for  beauty  rests  upon 
an  imaginary  portrait 
done  by  Lawrence 
Crosse,  a  miniaturist 
who  died  about  1 724  ; 
being  set  to  "restore" 
a  miniature  of  the 
Queen,  he  gave  her 
new  features,  which 
fulfilled  his  own  ideal 
of  womanly  loveli- 
ness. These  have 
been  copied  often, 
and  often  on  ivory. 
Such  miniatures,  if 

done  before  1850,  are  therefore  not  contemporary,  yet 
they  may  be  considered  "  old."  Here,  No.  14,  is  a 
miniature,  which  represents  a  sitter  in  Elizabethan 
costume  ;  somebody  took  this  copy  done  on  ivory,  and 
let  it  into  an  old  wooden  box.  I  bought  the  whole  out 
of  a  Westminster  pawnshop  window  for  12s.  6d.,  but  I 
mention  this  as  a  warning,  not  as  a  prize. 

MINIATURES  DONE  ON  CARD 

Few  old  miniatures  have  been  painted  on  anything 
but  ivory  since  Queen  Anne  was  first  dead,  except 

35 


No.  14 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

those  done  in  enamel  on  metal.  Therefore  an  old 
miniature  done  on  card  or  paper  is  rarer,  and  to  some 
extent  more  desirable  to  acquire,  than  an  ordinary 
old  one  done  on  ivory.  In  tracing  the  transition 
according  to  the  material  of  the  base,  we  must  note  that 

probably  miniatures 
done  on  baby  calf 
skin  or  chick  skin 
(pecorella),  used  alone 
or  backed  with  card, 
came  next  in  lineal  de- 
scent to  missal  mmia- 
tures  done  upon 
vellum  in  a  book.  But 
whether  faced  with 
pecorella  or  not,  a 
playing  card  or  a  piece 
of  one  was  the  toughest 
bit  of  cardboard  avail- 
able to  sixteenth-  and 
seventeenth-century  miniaturists,  for  work  that  was  not 
to  be  done  on  metal,  slate,  or  wood. 

Here,  No.  15,  is  a  miniature  done  upon  a  bit  of 
seventeenth-century  card.  It  represents  Mme  de 
Sevigne  as  she  was  about  the  year  1657,  when  she  had 
been  five  or  six  years  a  widow,  and,  after  the  first  grief 
for  her  husband  had  passed  could  feel  relief  and  be 
bright  again.  Yet  there  are  touches  of  her  mourning 
costume  visible  in  the  black  ribbons,  and  she  wears 
a  widow's-peak  cap  on  her  coiffure — the  black  of  it 
relieved  with  points  of  gilt  ;  gilding  was  often  used  on 

36 


No.  15 


THE  TRANSITION  TO   IVORY 

old  contemporary  miniatures  painted  upon  card.  It  has 
been  generally  written  that  Mme  de  Sevigne's  eyes 
were  blue,  though  she  wrote  of  them  herself  that  they 
were  "  bigarres,"  which  means  "  mottled,"  strictly. 
In  this  miniature  her  eyes  are  seen  to  be  of  mingled 
colour,  brown  and  blue.  I  bought  this  miniature  for 
£4.  The  frame  is  hardly  contemporary,  I  think, 
though  it  is  made  of  the  silver  and  silver-gilt  often  used 
for  the  purpose  at  the  period.  At  any  rate,  the  name 
of  the  famous  wit  and  letter  writer  must  have  been 
engraved  at  the  back  in  England,  for  the  accents  are 
omitted  from  the  two  letters  "  e  "  in  the  surname  ; 
though  no  doubt  the  portrait  itself  was  contemporaneous 
with  the  sitter,  and  done  from  one  which  Petitot  did 
in  enamel,  or  after  an  engraving  by  Nanteuil. 

TRANSITION  IN  SHAPE 

Something  can  be  known  about  the  date  of  an  old 
miniature  from  its  shape  sometimes.  Holbemesque 
miniatures  are  usually  almost  round,  or  round  within 
a  square  setting  ;  they  are  seldom  rather  oval,  and  never 
truly  oval,  I  think,  and  they  are  small.  Miniatures  on 
card  were  often  largish.  When  painted  upon  playing 
cards  they  were  often  kept  to  the  oblong  shape  of  the 
card,  more  or  less.  In  the  Royal  collection  of  miniatures 
at  Windsor  Castle  there  is  the  "  picture  of  Queen  Mary 
of  Scotland  upon  a  blew-grounded  square  card,"  which 
was  item  twenty-third  in  the  contemporary  catalogue 
made  of  King  Charles  I's  artistic  treasures.  But 
Milliard,  portrait-painter  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  often  used 
an  oval  shape. 

37 


COLLECTING   OLD    MINIATURES 

TRANSITION  IN  MEDIUM 

A  transition  in  medium  also  is  known  to  have  taken 
place.  In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
body  colour,  i.e.,  water-colour  laid  on  thickly,  or  made 
opaque  by  adding  Chinese  white,  was  used  on  card, 
and  oils  were  used  on  metal  or  wood,  though  in  a 
few  cases  oil  colours  were  used  on  card  or  paper.  In 
the  seventeenth  century  body  colour  was  sometimes 
used  on  metal.  When  ivory  became  the  "  canvas," 
transparent  water-colours — i.e.,  laid  on  thinly,  and 
not  rendered  opaque  by  Chinese  white — came  into 
vogue. 

COOPER  AND  COOPERESQUE  MINIATURES 

Body  colour  on  metal  is  therefore  a  part  of  the 
transition  from  vellum  to  ivory,  and  here,  No.  16,  is 
a  fine  contemporaneous  example  ;  from  a  roundish 
ellipse  to  a  true  oval  is  also  part  of  the  transition,  and 
this  is  an  example  of  that.  I  bought  it  at  night  under 
gas-light — a  thing  which  should  rarely  be  done.  I 
said,  "  Here  is  a  fine  seventeenth-century  miniature, 
yet  the  frame  is  brass."  I  thereupon  locked  it  up  in  a 
drawer,  and  did  not  look  at  it  again  for  three  days. 
But  then  under  daylight  I  discovered  that  the  frame 
and  the  painting  were  contemporaneous,  that  what  I 
thought  brass  is  old  parcel-gilt  silver,  and  that  the 
miniature  is  painted  on  an  oval  plate  of  silver,  which 
forms  the  back  of  the  frame.  I  believe  it  is  a  portrait 
of  Andrew  Marvell,  the  poet,  and  I  hope  it  may  have 
been  painted  by  Samuel  Cooper,  but  without  the 
38 


THE  TRANSITION   TO   IVORY 

least  doubt  I  can  say  that  it  belongs  to  his  style  and 
school. 

Samuel  Cooper,  born  in   1609,  was  the  very  crown 
and  flower  of  English  miniaturists  and  his  work  was 
so  powerful  and  vital  that  he  may  be  justly  called  the 
Rembrandt  of  all  "  limners 
in    little."      Most    of    the 
known  work  that   can   de- 
finitely be   ascribed  to  his 
brush     is     locked     up     in 
famous  collections,   and   is 
therefore      without     price. 
But    just   as    there   was    a 
Holbemesque     school      of 
miniaturists,  so  was  there  a 
Cooperesque   school    also  ; 
Flatman,  Dixon,  and  Cleyn 
are  its  best-known    names. 
Mary  Beale,  a  miniaturist  of 
the   period,    wrote    in    her 
diary  on  May  5,  1672,  that  "  Mr.  Samuel  Cooper,  the 
most   famous   limner   in   the   world   for  a  face,"  had 
died  that  day  ;    in   1668  Pepys  recorded  that  he  had 
paid   Cooper    £30   for   a    miniature   of    Mrs.    Pepys, 
"  certainly   a    most    rare    piece    of    work   as   to   the 
painting";    and  in   1758  Horace  Walpole  wrote  that 
he  had  been  asked  £400  for  "  Cooper's  head  of  0. 
Cromwell,  an  unfinished  miniature."     Cooper's  portraits 
resemble  pastels  by  Quentin  de  la  Tour  in  this,  that  the 
sitters  seem  not  posed  but  alive. 

When  Cooper  signed  his  work  he  joined  S  and  C 

39 


No.  16 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
together  in  a  monogram  ;  when  F.  Cleyn  signed  it  was 
with  F  and  C  conjoined.  The  initials  on  this  miniature 
are  more  like  F  and  C  than  S  and  C  ;  but  in  any  case, 
to  pick  up  this  fine  piece  of  Cooperesque  work  for  a 
guinea  is  to  show  that  collecting  fine  old  miniatures 
cheaply  can  still  be  done. 


40 


VI.  MINIATURES  DONE  ON  PAPER 

ATISTS    who  worked   on  vellum    or  cardboard 
sometimes  painted  on  paper  also,  and  minia- 
tures on  paper  therefore  form  a  part  of  the 
transition  from   vellum 
to  ivory  ;   but,  as  might 
be  expected,  paper  was 
also   used   concurrently 
with  ivory,  and  has  re- 
mained in  some  use  till 
this  day. 

No.  17  is  a  seven- 
teenth-century minia- 
ture done  in  body- 
colour  upon  paper  ;  in 
the  Gray's  Inn  Road 
I  bought  it  for  10s.  in 
its  frame.  It  needed  No.  17 

and  has  now  received  a 

little  restoration,  such   as   any  skilful  miniaturist  prac- 
tising the  art  to-day  can  give. 

REPAIRS 

It  is  a  mistake  to  have  an  unfinished  miniature  com- 
pleted, but  when  damp  has  brought  mould  upon  the  sur- 
face of  the  ivory,  or  sunlight  has  caused  essential  tints  to 

41 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
fade,  or  when  the  miniature  has  lam  frameless  and  dust 
or  rubbing  has  injured  the  outlines  or  the  pigments, 
then  the  services  of  a  discreet  and  adept  restorer  may 
well  be  called  in,  unless  the  miniature  is  very  specially 
old  and  important.  The  cost  of  that  in  this  case  was 
3s.  6d.,  as  the  injury  had  been  done  by  rubbing  ;  the 
original  frame  removed,  the  miniature  must  have  lam 
without  protection,  even  glassless,  until  about  the  year 
1800,  when  it  got  its  present  frame.  It  resembles  the 
portraits  of  Venetia,  Lady  Digby  ;  in  the  hair  near  the 
temples  the  signs  of  the  retouching  may  be  seen. 

NAMING  THE  SITTERS 

By  the  style  of  dressing  the  hair  and  the  use  of  jewels 
as  shoulder-knots,  the  period  of  this  miniature  is 
suggested,  but  the  work  was  not  signed  by  the  artist, 
and  nothing  (except  a  likeness  to  the  famous  portrait 
by  Oliver)  indicates  the  sitter's  name.  I  should  think 
that  one  half  the  old  miniatures  extant  are  nameless  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  most  of  the  modern  copies  and  the 
counterfeits  are  quite  elaborately  named.  In  an  old 
miniature  the  name  was  sometimes  written  on  the  back, 
sometimes  on  a  slip  of  paper  kept  between  the  back 
of  the  picture  and  the  back  of  the  frame,  and  sometimes 
it  is  engraved  or  penned  upon  the  back  of  the  frame 
itself ;  in  one  seventeenth-century  miniature  which  I 
own  the  trace  is  given  by  the  insertion  of  a  coat-of-arms 
between  the  miniature  and  the  back  of  the  frame. 
But  a  collector  must  be  prepared  to  leave  many  minia- 
tures unnamed.  The  pigment  used,  the  material 
worked  upon,  the  style,  and  the  quality  of  the  art  often 

42 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON  PAPER 

enable  the  period  to  be  determined,  and  in  the  case  of 

contemporary  portraits  the  costume  helps  in  this  ;   but 

they  give  little  clue  to  the  sitter,  unless  the  costume  be 

distinctive  of  a   monarch  or  a  fighting  man,  who  is 

therefore    the    more   easily 

traced.     The  style,  art,  and 

period    often     indicate    the 

artist  also  ;   the  pity  is  that 

so  many  old  miniatures  were 

not  signed,  even  by  initials 

or   monograms,  but   one  is 

safer  in  ascribing  a  miniature 

to  an  artist  than  in  naming 

the  sitter,  as  a  rule.   I  should 

much  value  the  kindness  of 

any  readers  of  these  chapters 

who  may  recognize  and  name 

to  me,  on  a  postcard,  any 

face   here  reproduced  ;    but 

a  collector  should  not  be  over-anxious  to  put  a  name 

to  every  sitter  represented  in  his  collection. 

OLD  COPIES  OF  COOPER 

I  wish  I  could  be  sure  that  No.  18  was  a  contem- 
porary miniature,  but  I  cannot.  It  is  old,  no  doubt;  it  is 
painted  on  paper;  it  is  exceedingly  well  painted,  too;  the 
"  character  "  of  the  original  portrait  (for  this  is  certainly 
a  copy)  is  finely  rendered  ;  the  blue  background  touched 
with  gold  is  usual  in  miniatures  painted  between  the 
Holbemesque  and  the  Cooperesque,  both  inclusive  ; 
and  the  accessories  are  powerfully  yet  carefully  painted, 

43 


No.  18 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
notably  so  in  the  colour  of  the  armour  showing  through 
the  outer  part  of  the  lawn  collar.  If  this  miniature 
had  been  got  at  a  King  Street  auction  sale  for  a  hundred 
guineas  I  might  feel  more  certain  about  it,  but  it  did 
not  cost  me  anything  at  all  like  that.  The  paper  is  old, 
and  it  shows  no  water-mark,  but  the  test  of  the  paper 
is  always  difficult  to  apply  to  miniatures,  because  a 
counterfeiter  can  obtain  paper  from  the  fly-leaves  of  an 
old  book.  However,  here  this  fine  miniature  is,  and  is 
old  if  not  contemporary.  It  is  probably  an  old  copy  of  a 
Cooper  portrait  of  John,  Earl  of  Loudoun  (1598-1662), 
though  how  it  came  to  be  copied  at  all  is  a  mystery, 
for  the  original  has  seldom  been  seen  ;  in  1910  Dr. 
Williamson  wrote  that  for  a  couple  of  generations  it 
was  lost  sight  of  behind  some  oak  panelling  and  had 
only  recently  come  to  light  ;  and  no  picture  of  it  was 
ever  published  until  1910,  so  that  no  modern  copy  of 
it  could  have  been  made  until  then.  The  frame  is  quite 
recent,  of  course,  but  then  I  bought  the  whole,  as  it 
stands,  for  Is.  6d.  out  of  the  window  of  a  marine  stores 
in  the  Old  Kent  Road  in  the  year  1907. 

Eighteenpence  for  this  miniature,  and  yet  what  force 
and  character  in  the  face  and  in  the  limning  of  it  !  As 
might  be  expected,  body-colour  has  been  used,  though 
much  of  the  flesh-tinting  is  transparent  water-colour, 
in  the  style  which  Cooper  himself  used  to  lay  it  on. 
The  hair  is  wonderfully  well  done,  too — as  the  hair 
is  in  Cooper's  work  in  particular.  I  cannot  feel  sure 
that  this  miniature  is  contemporary  with  the  sitter 
or  as  old  as  Queen  Anne,  yet  what  modern  miniaturist 
or  which  of  the  finickers  who  worked  on  ivory  under 
44 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON   PAPER 

the  Georges  could  have  worked  on  paper  with  so  much 
power,  spontaneity,  freedom,  and  lifelike  effect  as  this  ? 
There  was  a  Mrs.  Rosse  or  Ross  who  copied  several 
Cooper  miniatures  contemporaneously  ;  was  this  her 
work?  This  is  one  of  the  mysteries  which  a  picker-up 
of  old  miniatures  comes 
upon  in  his  street  travels, 
for  by  what  carelessness, 
neglect,  or  accident  did 
this  fine  piece  of  work 
come  into  the  hands  of  a 
marine-stores  keeper,  and 
how  long  had  it  waited  a 
purchaser  at  the  exorbi- 
tant price  of  one-and- 


"  PLUMBAGO"  MINIA- 
TURES No   |9 

Miniatures  done  in  lead 

pencil  on  paper  are  called  "  plumbagoes,"  and  some 
of  them  date  as  far  back  as  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
David  Loggan  was  the  master  in  this  style  about  that 
date,  and  Thomas  Forster  did  fine  plumbagoes  at 
about  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Some 
plumbagoes  are  lightly  tinted  with  colour  on  the  flesh 
and  hair.  Here,  No.  19,  is  a  plumbago,  signed 
"  Littlejohns,  fecit,"  done  about  the  year  1795  to 
judge  by  the  costume  ;  I  bought  it  for  3s.,  loose  from 
its  former  frame,  but  the  power  of  it  as  a  portrait 
and  the  delicate  work  in  the  features  and  the  dress 

45 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
has  not  been  rubbed  away  ;  the  chief  defect  is  a  lack 
of  modelling  at  the  ear. 

Until  recently  plumbago  miniatures  could  be  bought 
for  next  to  nothing  ;  here  is  No.  20,  for  instance,  which 


No.  20 

cost  me  2s.  out  of  a  little  dealer's  portfolio.  The  art 
of  it  and  the  details  of  the  costume  suggest  that  it  is  a 
portrait  sketch  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence.  The  charm- 
ing little  walnut-wood  frame  is  contemporary,  though 
I  bought  it  separately  for  3s.  6d. 


46 


VII.  MINIATURES  DONE  ON  IVORY 

A  I  approach  the  subject  of  miniatures  painted  in 
water-colour  on  ivory,  which  so  many  people 
seem  to  suppose  are  the  only  kind  of  miniatures 
worth  collecting,  I  should  like  to  repeat  and  emphasize 
the  principle  that  what  really  counts  in  a  miniature  is, 
or  ought  to  be,  the  art  of  it — the  artist's  taste  and  skill. 
A  collector  gradually  learns  how  to  distinguish  the  true 
from  the  counterfeit  and  the  old  from  the  modern,  but 
he  ought  early  to  study  how  to  distinguish  between 
the  well-painted  and  the  poorly  done,  because  this  will 
help  him  in  distinguishing  between  the  varieties  just 
mentioned.  There  can  be  no  better  way  of  studying 
what  a  really  fine,  well-painted,  old  miniature  is  like 
than  by  noticing  those  which  hang  on  the  screens  under 
glass  at  Hertford  House  (the  Wallace  collection)  at  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery,  and  at  the  Victoria  and 
Albert  Museum  (the  Jones  and  the  Dyce  collections)  ; 
and  while  this  trains  the  eye  in  respect  of  r.-j  matures 
particularly,  the  study  of  fine  pictures  on  canvas,  lovely 
drawings  in  water-colour,  or  noble  black-and-white 
work  will  also  have  prepared  one  to  recognize  fine  art 
even  when  done  "  in  small." 

Becoming  able  to  judge  a  miniature  by  the  art  in  it, 
a  collector  is  the  less  willing  to  value  it  according  to 
the  mere  name  of  the  sitter  or  even  the  name  of  the 

47 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

artist  ;  also  he  disdains  the  "  real  ivory  "  commendation 
as  much  as  he  does  the  "  real  gold  frame  "  which  a 
dealer  mentions  whenever  he  can,  and  sometimes  when 
he  ought  not.  The  authors  of  big  books  on  the  subject 
lay  proper  stress  upon  the  work  done  by  the  most 
famous  miniaturists,  but  there  were  not  a  few  good 
artists  "  in  little "  whose  names  those  books  do  not 
mention,  or  hardly  mention  ;  some  hundreds  of  minia- 
turists on  ivory  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy  in 
their  day  ;  and  therefore  a  collector  may  quite  cheaply 
acquire  examples  of  good  work  if  he  buys  according 
to  the  art  he  perceives,  and  not  by  the  artist's  mere 
name. 

DISTINCTIVE  STYLES 

After  a  while  the  collector  becomes  able  to  dis- 
tinguish miniatures  according  to  their  periods  and 
"  schools,"  and  then  according  to  the  styles  of  certain 
well-known  artists.  For  instance,  Smart's  work  almost 
always  shows  a  morbidity  and  individuality  of  look  in 
the  eyes.  Dr.  Williamson  (much  my  most  helpful 
authority  on  miniatures,  whose  books  are  exempt  from 
the  dissatisfaction  rightly  felt  with  others  on  the 
subject)  refers,  "  as  characteristic  features,  to  the 
rich,  subdued  colouring  of  Edndge,  in  its  tones  often 
recalling  an  oil  portrait,  to  the  broad,  full,  fleshy 
faces  of  George  Engleheart,  so  noticeable  even  in  his 
slighter  and  unfinished  works  ;  to  the  somewhat  weak 
and  niggling  work  of  Cotes  with  its  own  special,  quiet 
refinement ;  and  to  the  free  drawing  and  pale  greyish 
colour  of  Shelley,"  and  he  mentions  "  the  large  fulness 

48 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON   IVORY 

of  the  eyes,  the  wiry  character  of  the  hair  (see 
No.  7),  the  roundness  of  the  flesh,  almost  exaggerated 
in  some  examples,"  which  are  distinctive  marks  of 
Engleheart's  work.  As  to  Cosway's,  "  nothing  is  more 
characteristic  than  his  light,  free,  easy  delineation  of 
hair,  suggested  in  masses  rather  than  drawn  in  detail 
(in  opposition  to  the  method  adopted  by  Phmer,  whose 
hard,  wiry  hair  is  especially  distinctive  of  his  work)  (see 
No.  25).  The  clear  brightness  of  the  eyes,  and  their 
gleam  of  pure,  white  light,  the  roundness  and  gram  of  the 
limbs, and  the  airy  transparency  of  the  draperies  are  other 
distinctive  features  of  Cosway's  art."  Elsewhere  I 
learn  that  Cosway  liked  to  see  "  the  letter  S  everywhere  " 
in  the  curves  of  the  hair  and  the  outlines  of  the  pose, 
and  that  he  cast  upon  all  he  did  "  a  peculiar  elegance 
and  distinction,"  as  indeed  one  notices  in  his  work. 

THE  COSWAY  STYLE 

But  Richard  Cosway,  as  the  most  famous  painter  of 
miniatures  on  ivory,  founded  a  school  and  had  many 
contemporary  imitators  of  his  style.  No.  21  is  a 
miniature  which  if  it  is  not  by  Cosway  is  very  Cosway- 
esque.  If  it  had  cost  £165  at  Christie's  few  would 
doubt  that  it  was  "  a  Cosway,"  but  it  cost  me  £6  5s. 
only,  near  Cambridge  Circus  in  1912.  The  skill  of 
the  art  and  the  beauty  of  the  work  are  evident,  and 
the  lightness,  radiance,  flippant  grace,  and  fragility 
are  visible  even  in  this  colourless  representation  of  it. 
It  has,  in  point  of  fact,  the  peculiar  Cosway  colour  in 
the  hair ;  here,  as  in  the  finest  and  most  authenticated 
Cosways,  one  sees  the  hair,  shadows,  and  drapery 
D  49 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

painted  in  with  almost  neutral  tints,  so  that  "  a  pearly 
colour  "  is  predominant,  though  in  and  about  it  all 
one  sees  the  Cosway  faint  touches  of  blue  and  green  ; 
but  here  also  are  the  "  strong  darks  "  of  the  eyes,  the 
swimming  eyes,  eyes  not  exactly  alike,  and  the  faint 

pink  of  the  cheeks,  the  rich 
carnation  of  the  lips  ;  while 
over  it  all  are  the  refine- 
ment, the  idealized  grace 
and  luscious  sweetness  of 
Cosway 's  work. 

I  daresay  it  was  not  a 
good  portrait ;  I  make  it 
out  to  represent  Lady 
Skipwith,  whom  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  painted  in  oils 
and  did  not  show  to  be 
anything  like  so  chubby  of 
cheek  or  unwrmkled.  But 
then  Cosway  seems  seldom 
to  have  aimed  at  exact  portraiture  ;  he  would  know 
that  he  must  not,  indeed,  for  he  was  the  fashionable 
artist — the  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  in  small — of  his 
day.  His  sitters  went  to  him  to  be  flattered,  and  he 
must  gloze  and  cajole  ;  his  portrait  of  Caroline  of 
Brunswick  was  quite  false  to  the  life.  Indeed,  all  the 
Cosway  school  of  miniaturists  had  to  do  the  same  ; 
they  must  flatter  to  please,  or  they  could  not  make 
a  living,  and  therefore  even  Engleheart's  little  pictures 
of  young  women  were  blandishments,  and  as  for 
Plimer's,  the  adulation  and  sycophancy  in  them  is 

50 


No.  21 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON   IVORY 

almost  revolting  even  to-day.  This  artful  misrepresenta- 
tion of  women's  looks  is  characteristic  of  work  done  by 
other  miniaturists  of  the  period  ;  Mrs.  Cosway  tried  to 
emulate  her  husband  ;  Smart,  Richard  and  Samuel 
Collins,  Wood  and  Edridge  essayed  to  paint  in  the 
flattering  Cosway  style,  more  or  less. 

The  miniature  here  represented  has  R.  C.,  1781,  in 
black  just  above  the  frill  on  the  right  shoulder.  At 
one  time  this  bit  of  ivory  must  have  lain  frameless, 
for  the  signature  has  been  rubbed,  and  so  have  the 
sleeve  and  the  bodice.  Cosway  is  not  known  to  have 
signed  his  initials  on  the  front  of  miniatures  often  ; 
only  two  or  three  authenticated  instances  are  known  to 
exist.  Richard  Collins  did  sign  his  work  R.  C.  on  the 
front  of  the  miniature,  but  then,  Richard  Collins 
coloured  faces  ruddily,  and  is  not  represented  anywhere 
else  by  work  so  dainty  and  delicate  as  this.  About  this 
there  is  indeed  the  "  certain  hot-house  lusciousness  " 
which  has  been  said  to  be  a  constant  feature  of  Cosway 's 
work  ;  here,  too,  is  indeed  "  hair  that  is  a  happy  com- 
bination of  the  sculptor's  and  the  painter's  art," — as 
Mr.  Dudley  Heath  has  noticed — it  possesses  "  the  soft, 
radiating  appreciation  of  line,  with  a  classic  uniformity 
of  mass,  crowning  the  head  like  a  bishop's  tiara,  or 
lightly  caressing  the  rounded  contours  of  neck  and 
shoulder."  The  "  skyey "  background,  too,  is  in 
Cosway 's  own  special  choice  of  tints,  the  cold,  clear 
blue  lightening  into  white,  which  he  used  during  the 
better  part  of  his  career.  In  some  respects  the  face 
might  be  by  Engleheart,  but  the  neck  and  bust  show 
Cosway 's  rapid  bad  drawing,  and  the  head  is  not 

51 


COLLECTING    OLD    MINIATURES 

posed  in  quite  the  middle  of  the  oval,  a  thing  which 
Cosway  seldom  did,  though  his  school  did  it  almost 
always  ;  so  that — yes,  I  think  I  must  claim  that  this  is  a 
Cosway,  perhaps  done,  signed,  and  dated  to  show  that 
Engleheart's  best  could  be  bettered. 

Even  the  most  dampening  of  critics  would  let  it 
pass  as  a  typical  example  of  the  eighteenth-century 
style,  however,  and  a  collector  can  hardly  mistake  this 
style  when  he  has  once  studied  it.  But  he  must  beware 
of  forgeries  ;  not  merely  those  done  lately,  which  are 
innocuous  except  to  rash  inexperience,  but  those  fraudu- 
lent copies  done  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago,  which  time 
also  has  been  at  work  on.  I  saw  such  an  one  the  other 
day  ;  in  faded  ink  at  the  back  it  bore  the  legend  which 
is  supposed  to  authenticate  a  Cosway — "  Ricardus 
Cosway,  R.A.,  Primanus  Pictor  Serenissimus  Walliae, 
Principis  Pinxit,"  and  a  date — but  the  painting  belied 
the  signature,  though  the  price  asked  was  £150. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  must  be  many  genuine 
Cosway  miniatures  still  existent  but  unrecognized  as 
such.  For  the  artist  painted  during  fifty  years,  and 
sometimes  "  when  he  sat  down  to  dinner  would  boast 
that  he  had  dispatched  during  the  day  twelve  or  fourteen 
sitters,"  at  three  sittings  per  miniature.  Though 
neglect,  fire,  and  damp  have  ruined  many,  there  must 
still  be  some  thousands  of  Cosways  extant. 

A  "  COSWAY  "  MAN 

No.  22  was  bought  for  £5,  from  a  small  watchmaker 
who  at  last  (after  much  coaxing  and  a  small  preliminary 
purchase)  dived  into  his  safe  and  produced  this  ad- 

52 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON    IVORY 

mirable  miniature.  It  is  certainly  a  Cosway,  done  with 
the  lightness,  ease,  and  finished  unfinish  of  Cosway 's 
facile  work  at  its  best.  The  hair  and  the  flesh  are 
significant  evidence.  The  hair  has  "  subtle  shades  of 
blue  or  green  in  it,"  as  Dr.  Williamson  has  noticed  in 
Cosway 's  work  with  a  pedi- 
gree ;  it  is  broad,  and  life- 
like, "  resembling  soft- 
pencil  work  " — indeed,  it 
is  pencil  work  lightly  tinted 
in  the  Cosway  manner. 
Half  the  forehead  and  most 
of  the  right  cheek  consist  of 
the  ivory  untinted,  and  a 
lens  shows  that  the  pencil- 
marks  still  remain  near  the 
lips  and  eyes.  "  A  touch 
of  colour  and  a  few  hasty 
strokes,  a  little  dark  stip- 
pling m  the  shadows,  and 
a  living  face  "  describes  this  miniature  exactly  ;  with 
faint  blues  and  greens  in  the  coat,  and  pink  amidst 
the  blue  of  the  background,  the  "  Cosway  "  colouring 
is  delightful  to  see.  Also  the  grace,  and  the  aristocracy 
of  the  work,  so  to  speak,  are  evident  here  ;  as  they  are 
in  No.  21. 

I  am  not  so  bold  as  to  claim  the  discovery  of  three 
Cosways  and  the  purchase  of  them  cheaply,  but  in 
No.  23  may  be  seen  another  variety  of  the  style.  £5 
was  the  price  of  this,  at  a  small  jeweller's  in  Oxford 
Street.  The  frame-maker  who  opened  it  for  me,  so 

53 


No.  22 


COLLECTING   OLD    MINIATURES 

that  a  little  dust  which  had  gathered  inside  might  be 
removed,  declared  that  the  frame  had  never  been 
disturbed  since  it  was  fitted.  The  hair  in  the  back 
of  the  frame  is  still  so  beautiful  and  was  so  lavishly 

supplied  that  only 
a  young  woman's 
head  could  have 
parted  with  so 
much,  and  from 
the  striking  nose, 
fine  eye,  and  above 
all  the  singular 
lower  lip,  I  judge 
this  to  be  a  portrait 
of  Sarah  Kemble, 
painted  soon  after 
she  had  become 
Mrs.  Siddons,  and 
had  appeared  at 
Drury  Lane 
No.  23  theatre,  when 

nineteen  years  old. 

The  untouched  contents,  the  backfpapers,  and  the 
tattered  gilt  foil  under  the  Bristol  blue  glass  between 
the  two  gold  rims,  bear  out  the  date. 

THE  GEORGE  ENGLEHEART  STYLE 

Engleheart's  ladies,  resembling  Cosway's  in  many 
things,  have  something  keener  and  stronger  than  his 
in  their  look,  and  the  drawing  is  better  ;  but  Engle- 
heart's best  miniatures  are  those  of  men,  and  broadly 
54 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON   IVORY 

and  nobly  show  the  English  strength  of  character. 
No.  24  is  one,  an  obvious  masterpiece,  though  signed 
inconspicuously  with  a  script  "  E,"  as  was  the  artist's 
wont ;  I  bought  it  for  £4.  The  coat,  in  the  buttons  and 
the  hatching  of  the  shadows,  is  characteristically 
"  Engleheart,"  but  consider 
the  character  in  the  face, 
the  modelling  at  the  mouth 
and  chin,  and — for  a  par- 
ticularly happy  detail — the 
way  the  wig  sits  upon  the 
temples  and  against  the 
cheek.  I  cannot  trace 
the  sitter,  but  he  and  the 
artist  together  produced  a 
noble  piece  of  work  indeed. 
Engleheart's  work  was 
deeper,  more  serious,  and 
more  honest  than  Cos- 
way's.  It  was  also  richer 

in  tint,  and  the  eyes  more  brilliant.  The  eyes  are 
often  too  large.  An  Engleheart  woman's  face  is 
weaker  than  an  Engleheart  man's,  but  not  so  weak  as 
a  Cosway  woman's,  nor  yet  so  daintily  fine.  Illustra- 
tion No.  7  crudely  imitates  the  Engleheart  woman's 
style. 

THE  ANDREW  PLIMER  STYLE 

The  third  most  famous  English  miniaturist  on  ivory 
was  Andrew  Phmer,  though  I  cannot  understand  why 
his  work,  so  much  inferior  to  Cosway 's  or  Engleheart's 

55 


No.  24 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
as  it  was,  should  have  got  such  a  vogue ;  Smart  was  a 
finer  artist  than  he.  No.  25  is  an  old  copy  of  one  of 
Plimer's  portraits  of  Lady  Northwick ;  it  cost  me 
12s.  6d.  off  a  barrow  in  Soho  ;  I  give  it  here  to  indicate 
the  Plimer  style ;  note  the  "  wiry  "  hair.  Copies  of 

Plimer's  showy  work,  in- 
tended to  deceive,  are  as 
numerous  as  copies  of 
Cosway's,  but  this  is  an  old 
copy,  and  not  slavish  nor 
deceptive,  for  it  does  not 
fully  reproduce  the  charac- 
teristic Plimer  defect  of  en- 
larging and  darkening  the 
eyes  to  a  totally  unnatural 
extent ;  to  judge  by  the 
eyes,  all  Plimer's  women 
sitters  must  have  used  kohl 
or  henna,  or  some  other 
cosmetic  which  gives  a 

houn-like  bigness,  darkness,  and  softness  to  the  eyes. 
Except  in  a  weakness  and  a  lowness  of  tints,  No.  25 
represents  fairly  well  the  style  which  a  collector  should 
have  in  mind  when  going  hunting  for  Plimers.  But  they 
are  risky  and  deceptive  to  collect. 

THE  MINOR  ARTISTS 

The  following  names  and  dates  more  than  cover 
the  great  period  of  English  miniature-painting  upon 
ivory;  Cosway  (1740-1821),  J.  Smart  (1741-1811), 
George  Engleheart  (1752-1829),  Andrew  Plimer  (1763- 
56 


No.  25 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON   IVORY 

1837),  Ross  (1794-1860).  Cosway  began  to  paint 
miniatures  in  1761,  and  Sir  William  Ross  ceased  to 
paint  them  in  1856,  so  that  the  "  great  period  "  lasted 
for  ninety-five  years. 

Of  other  leading  miniaturists,  contemporary  with 
some  of  the  eminent  five  just  named  I  mention  J.  Nixon 
(1741-1812).  OziasHumPhrey(1742-1810).  J.Russell 
(1745-1809),  S.  Shelley  (1750-1808),  W.  Grimaldi 
(1751-1830),  W.  Wood  (1768-1808),  H.  Edridge 
(1769-1821),  A.  Robertson  (1777-1845),  Mrs.  Mee 
(1775-1851).  But  there  were  also  other  good  minia- 
turists of  the  period,  whose  names  are  less  known,  yet 
whose  work  is  well  worth  hunting  for ;  I  cannot 
catalogue  and  date  all  these,  but  have  mentioned  and 
shall  mention  some  of  them  incidentally.  And  there 
were  yet  other  miniaturists,  whose  names  even  are 
unknown,  but  whose  work,  bearing  initials,  exists  in 
great  collections,  and  has  been  thought  worthy  of 
inclusion  in  exhibitions  of  miniatures  from  time  to  time. 
It  is  old  miniatures  unsigned,  or  anonymously  initialled, 
which  afford  a  beginner  at  collecting  to-day  his  best 
chances  of  success,  for  signatures  or  recognizable 
initials  increase  a  dealer's  prices  ;  though,  as  I  think 
I  have  shown,  assiduity  and  study  can  still  acquire 
miniatures  "  by  the  best  hands  "  for  quite  small  sums 
indeed. 

No.  26  is  a  miniature  initialled  P.  J.  in  script.  Paul 
Jean  exhibited  miniatures  at  the  Royal  Academy  from 
1 787  to  1 802 — the  Royal  Academy  lists  of  exhibitors 
are,  by  the  by,  a  source  of  much  information  on  the 
subject  of  these  chapters — but  he  probably  did  not 

57 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
greatly  succeed  in  a  worldly  sense,  for  his  miniatures 
seem  to  be  few.  Yet  he  painted  well,  as  this  specimen 
testifies,  and  so  well  did  he  paint,  indeed,  that  one  of 
the  miniatures  he  produced  was  bought  for  the  Pierpont 
Morgan  collection  as  "  a  Cosway,"  and  was  only  later 

discovered  to  be  by  Paul 
Jean  by  the  presence  of 
"  P.  J."  upon  the  edge  of 
the  ivory. 

Obviously  the  minia- 
ture here  represented  is 
rather  Coswayesque  ;  the 
treatment  of  the  bodice 
frills  is  very  effective,  and 
the  tinting  is  delightful  to 
the  eye  ;  I  make  out  that 
the  sitter  was  perhaps  the 
Miss  Crockett  whose  por- 
trait Hoppner  painted  in 
large.  The  way  in  which 
this  miniature  came  into  my  possession  is  worth  men- 
tioning, for  it  shows  what  experiences  a  collector 
may  have.  Somewhere  about  the  year  1790  this 
miniature  was  glued  down  to  the  page  of  a  lady  s 
album  of  copied  verse  and  "  sentiments  "  ;  it  would 
be  little  valued  at  that  date,  when  miniatures  were 
plentiful.  Eighteenth-century  albums  have  lasted  on, 
however,  and  in  the  Caledonian  Market  five  or  six 
years  ago  I  found  a  broker  removing  this  miniature 
from  the  album  page.  He  removed  it  with  his  clasp- 
knife,  and  I  put  out  my  hand  to  stop  him  half  a  minute 

58 


No.  26 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON    IVORY 

too  late.  The  miniature  cracked  its  whole  length,  into 
two  clean-edged  pieces,  and  he  looked  at  it  with  surprise. 
Then  he  said,  "  It's  broke,  sir,  but — what  d'y°u  say 
to  eighteenpence  for  it  ?  "  I  said  yes,  and  by  experiment 
found  that  a  cleanly  broken  miniature  can  be  neatly 
repaired;  glue  was 
brought  into  connexion 
with  this  again,  to  fix 
the  two  pieces  closely 
side  by  side  upon  a 
rigid  backing,  and — be- 
hold the  result ! 

For  the  charming  ^j 
miniature  of  sweet  six- 
teen, No.  27,  framed  in 
old  ormolu  and  coloured 
paste,  I  gave  something 
less  than  £3  in  1914. 
It  is  initialled  R.  D. 
R.  Dudman  was  another 
of  the  almost  unknown  miniaturists  ;  what  is  known  of 
him  is  that  he  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy  once, 
in  the  year  1 797,  and  that  he  painted  the  father  and 
mother  of  Richard  Cobden  about  the  year  1 799.  Those 
Cobden  miniatures  are  poor  compared  with  the  one 
here  represented,  and  I  am  perhaps  justified  in  sup- 
posing that  R.  Dudman  lived  to  paint  better  as  he 
grew  older,  for  the  dress  of  the  girl  here  shown  is  early 
nineteenth-century,  I  should  think.  At  any  rate,  this 
is  a  very  agreeable  and  skilful  old  miniature,  excellent 
in  colour  and  technique. 

59 


No.  27 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 


NECK  MINIATURES  ON  IVORY 

Many  of  the  minor  artists,  and  some  of  the  more 
prominent  ones,  painted  very  small  miniatures  of  men, 
to  be  worn  below  fair  necks,  often  surreptitiously  and 
under  the  bodice.  Here  are  two  of  the  kind.  No.  28 
is  quite  a  masterpiece  of  fine, 
strong  work,  well  worth  the 
sovereign  I  paid  for  it  ;  the 
sitter  must  have  been  some 
soldier  lover  gone  to  the 
Peninsular  War.  I  think  he 
died  in  battle,  for  there  is 
the  destined  look  in  His  face. 
Romance  haloes  miniature- 
collecting  when  one  thinks  of 
all  that  life  and  love  meant 
to  the  women  and  the  men 
portrayed ;  caught  in  their 
youth  or  their  prime,  and  in  their  vividness,  perpetuated 
upon  a  square  inch  or  two  of  surface,  they  seem  to  live 
on  still,  in  a  house  of  crystal  and  gold  ;  but  their  hopes 
and  ambitions,  joys  and  glad  memories,  sorrows,  errors, 
and  pains  are  dead.  Who  was  this  splendid  young 
officer  with  the  ruddy  skin,  the  commanding  eyebrows, 
the  sensuous  mouth,  the  wistful  eyes,  and  the  sturdy 
hair  disdaining  all  powder  but  gunpowder  ?  Impossible 
now  to  know  ;  and  I  can  find  no  initials  or  trace  of  the 
artist  even,  though  I  think  the  style  is  that  of  Gnmaldi. 
No.  29  is  in  the  style  of  Edridge,  and  of  that  date  ; 
I  gave  24s.  for  it  in  the  Caledonian  Market,  and  the 
60 


28 


MINIATURES  DONE  ON   IVORY 

little  broker  said  truly  that  the  frame  and  hanger  were 
"  real  gold."  A  little  restoration  was  needed,  and  the 
miniaturist  I  employed  used  too  much  Chinese  white 
on  the  neckcloth,  but  this  is  nevertheless  a  desirable 
little  miniature  to  own.  It  has  no  glass  at  the  back 
for  hair  of  the  beloved's  head  to  be  treasured  in  ;  the  other 
neck  miniature  has.  Larger 
miniatures  with  hair  fantastic- 
ally woven  in  with  pearls 
between  the  back  papers  of  the 
ivory  and  the  glass  back  of  the 
whole  seem  to  have  been  late — 
Regency  and  Early  Victorian  ; 
often  when  a  sailor  was  the  sitter 
the  background  of  the  picture 
is  sea,  and  on  it  a  diminutive 
representation  of  his  ship. 


No.  29 


IVORY-BOX  MINIATURES 

Round  ivory  boxes,  some- 
times inlaid  with  narrow  rings 
of  tortoiseshell,  and  holding  a  miniature  set  in  a  thin 
gold  rim  on  the  lid,  are  often  seen,  but  most  of  them 
are  quite  modern,  and  hardly  any  of  them  are  quite  old. 
By  exception  a  really  fine  old  miniature  may  have  been 
reset  into  a  box,  but,  generally  speaking,  these  are 
objects  that  may  pass  muster  on  boudoir  tables  but  are 
unworthy  of  a  place  in  a  cabinet  of  miniatures  ;  unless, 
indeed,  they  are  so  old  and  costly  as  to  be  out  of  the 
ordinary  collector's  reach. 


61 


VIII.  FRENCH  MINIATURES  ON 
IVORY 

A  GOOD  many  French  miniatures  on  ivory  exist 
in  this  country,  a  few  done  here,  by  French 
artists  resident  here  awhile  ;  the  others  belong 
to  the  Wallace  collection,  or  to  private  collections,  and 
were   bought   in    France,    where   they   were   painted. 
Occasionally  a  collector  comes  upon  a  French  miniature 
for  sale  in  England,  however,  and  no  collection  can  be 
considered   representative   which   does   not   include   a 
good  sample  or  two  of  the  art  as  it  used  to  be  practised 
in  France. 

ENGLISH  OR  FRENCH  ORIGINS? 

A  collector  should  not  neglect  French  miniatures, 
though  miniature-painting,  like  transparent  water- 
colour  painting  on  paper,  may  be  claimed  as  distinctively 
an  English  art.  Diderot  tried  to  establish  a  French 
origin  for  the  art  by  construing  its  name  ;  he  wrote 
that  "  The  French  use  of  the  word  mignature  seems  to 
come  from  the  word  mignard  which  means  delicate 
and  flattering,"  but  etymology  is  a  deceptive  pursuit. 
M.  Henri  Roujon,  who  is  the  French  authority  on 
miniatures  nowadays,  has  allowed  that  "  historians 
willingly  agree  that  the  fashion  of  producing  small, 
portable  portraits  began  in  England,"  and  that  "  the 
62 


FRENCH  MINIATURES  ON  IVORY 

English  school  of  miniature-painting,  so  fruitful  m  the 
seventeenth  century,  led  and  lit  the  way  for  French 
artists."  But  he  rightly  claims  that  "  French  artistic 
genius  in  the  eighteenth  century  found  in  miniature- 
painting  one  of  its  most  finished  expressions  "  ;  and 
this  went  on  in  spite  of  the  Revolution,  and  even  of  the 
Terror  ;  it  flourished  under  Napoleon  and  the  restored 
Bourbons  ;  and  it  died  as  the  English  art  did,  of  the 
photographer's  mechanical  practice  and  commercial 
attack. 

As  a  rule,  French  miniatures  on  ivory  were  painted 
wholly  or  partly  in  gouache,  which  is  body-colour,  but 
some  French  miniatures  on  ivory  were  painted  (as 
English  miniatures  on  ivory  were  and  still  are)  in 
transparent  colours  wholly  ;  Isabey,  the  best  known 
French  miniaturist,  used  and  inspired  in  others  the  use 
of  transparent  tinting.  The  four  miniatures  here 
shown  represent  proportionally  the  three  French 
methods  in  this  respect,  for  two  were  done  wholly  in 
gouache,  one  was  done  partly  in  gouache,  and  the  fourth 
was  done  wholly  in  transparent  water-colour. 

WHOLLY  IN  GOUACHE 

The  actress  with  the  cat,  No.  30,  looks  out  from  a 
miniature  of  much  charm  and  grace,  which  cost  me 
3s.  6d.  only,  though  I  found  it  in  quite  a  large  dealer's 
shop  off  the  Edgware  Road.  It  belongs  to  the  traditional 
gouache  French  school,  but  it  cannot  date  back  further 
than  the  year  1 830.  The  print  of  it  here  scarcely  shows 
the  solid,  body-colour  effect  visible  in  the  actual 
miniature,  though  even  the  flesh  is  painted  "  solid  " — 

63 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

that  is,  not  in  the  thin,  merely  tinted,  showing-through 
English  way,  or  the  Isabey  way  which  the  fourth  example 
typifies.  The  use  of  gouache  enabled  an  almost  oil- 
colour  degree  of  treating  details  by  the  brush  ;  lines 
could  be  painted,  instead  of  stipples,  and  light-coloured 

lines  upon  and  amidst  dark- 
coloured  surfaces  ;  there- 
fore the  painting  of  the 
cat's  head  and  body  seems 
to  show  up  almost  "  each 
particular  hair,"  and  the 
effect  which  Chinese  white 
produces  when  skilfully 
used  upon  a  gouache  back- 
ground is  seen  in  the  lace 
around  the  arms.  But  the 
"  solid  "  background  is 
inferior,  in  itself  as  well  as 
No.  30  in  tint,  to  the  aerial,  trans- 

parent background   which 

Cosway  and  other  English  miniaturists  used,  and  the 
general  difference  between  this  and  No.  33  is  almost 
the  same  difference  as  between  an  oil-painting  and  an 
aquarelle. 

Under  the  brush  of  a  really  fine  artist,  however,  the 
wholly  gouache  method  produced  very  beautiful  work 
indeed.  No.  31  was  probably  painted  by  C.  G.  A. 
Bourgeois,  for  it  shows  the  silhouette  pose,  the  curled 
eyelashes,  and  the  large  eyes  which  characterized  his 
style,  and  the  costume  suits  his  date.  Painted  in 
gouache,  upon  ivory  that  had  been  first  powdered  over 
64 


FRENCH  MINIATURES  ON  IVORY 

until  the  surface  had  an  almost  chicken-skin  effect, 
this  miniature  and  its  winning  sitter  present  a  peculiar 
charm.  To  relate  how  I  found  it  may  help  a  collector  to 
persist.  I  saw  a  brooch-miniature  in  a  small  clock  and 
watch  shop  win- 
dow, near  West- 
bourne  Grove. 
Going  in,  I  asked, 
Have  you  any 
other  miniatures?  " 
The  woman  be- 
hind the  counter 
said  "  No."  But 
I  had  at  once  seen 
three  hanging  on  a 
wall,  and  fishing 
into  a  show 
case  (courteously 
enough,  I  hope),  I 

found  four  others. 

r»r  I.L  i  •  No.  31 

Ur  the  seven,  this, 

No.  31,  was  the  only  one  not  modern,  but  it  was  sold 
me  for  15s.,  on  condition  that  I  also  took  the  brooch 
miniature  at  half  that  price. 

PARTLY  IN  GOUACHE 

I  have  chosen  this  small  portrait  of  Wellington,  No.  32, 
for  reproduction  because  it  is  partly  transparent  and 
partly  "  solid."  To  judge  by  the  face,  hair,  and  back- 
ground only,  this  is  English  work,  but  the  uniform  is 
painted  in  body-colour  and  is  a  French  artist's  ineffectual 

E  65 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 

representation  of  a  costume  which  he  did  not  under- 
stand ;  the  uniform  is  badly  painted — it  conveys  no 
military  meaning,  indicates  no  specific  rank  ;  the  collar, 
the  one  epaulette,  the  sash  and  the  star  supply  no 
information,  and  although  painted  "  solid,"  seem 
particularly  unreal.  I  make  out  that  this  is  a  portrait 
__^ ^ ^^-  °f  Wellington 

painted  by  a  French 
miniaturist  at  some 
date  prior  to  the 
Peninsular  War ; 
consider  the  brown 
colour  of  the  hair 
and  the  still  youthful 
look  of  the  face.  By 
the  size  and  shape 
of  the  work  I  judge 
that  it  was  once  the 
ornament  of  a  snuff- 
box ;  as  it  now  is, 

separate,  in  its  thin  gold  rim,  it  cost  me  £1  Is.  in 
Hanway  Street.  A  good  few  miniatures  of  Wellington, 
painted  when  he  had  become  world-famous — after  the 
year  1810,  that  is — are  extant,  but  so  far  as  I  know 
there  is  only  one  other  miniature  which  shows  him  as 
he  was  while  still  under  forty  years  old. 

GOUACHE  ENTIRELY  ABSENT 

Fine  French  miniatures  wholly  painted  in  transparent 
water-colours  on  ivory  are  seldom  met  with  here  by  a 
collector,  but  No.  33  is  one.  I  think  it  is  an  early  copy 


No.  32 


FRENCH  MINIATURES  ON  IVORY 

of  a  miniature  by  Isabey,  probably  done  by  one  of  his 
pupils,  Rodolphe  Bel,  for  I  make  out  "  R.  Bel,"  as  the 
signature.  On  the  other  hand,  I  am  aware  that  the 
original  of  this  miniature  has  recently  been  copied  several 
times  at  least ;  perhaps  this  is  not  old ;  a  collector  of 
miniatures  will  always 
have  two  or  three  about 
which  he  is  unsure. 
At  any  rate,  here  is  a 
distinguished  piece  of 
work,  done  by  a  good 
artist,  and  the  price  of 
it,  £2  in  a  small  dealer's 
shop  between  Soho 
and  Bloomsbury,  can- 
not be  called  excessive. 
Jean  Baptiste  Isabey 
(1767-1853),  in  some 
respects  the  best,  as  he 
is  the  best  known,  of 

French  miniaturists,  had  the  Plimer  habit  of  over-accen- 
tuating his  sitters'  eyes.  Moreover,  he  invented  what  is 
called  the  portrait  sous  voile — with  gauzy  wrappings  about 
the  face  and  shoulders,  that  is.  Here  are  the  very  large 
eyes,  and  here  is  the  voile.  The  sitter  was  Catherine 
Denn,  Countess  Beauchamp  ;  one  knows  that  because 
there  is  an  original  portrait  sous  voile  of  her  by  Isabey, 
on  a  slightly  larger  oval  than  this  ;  I  think,  but  am  not 
sure,  that  the  original  was  done  on  paper,  as  many  of 
Isabey 's  larger  miniatures  were,  but  even  this  copy  shows 
what  a  dainty  effect  the  voile  lends  to  the  face  and  hair. 

67 


No  33 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

WHERE  TO  STUDY  FRENCH  MINIATURES 

The  costliest  French  miniatures  are  those  done  in 
enamel  by  Petitot  ;  these  are  best  studied  at  the  Victoria 
and  Albert  Museum  (Jones  collection).  Other  kinds 
of  French  miniatures  are  better  studied  at  Hertford 
House  than  elsewhere  ;  even  the  small  rooms  of  the 
Premier  Etage,  at  the  Louvre,  do  not  contain  the  equal 
of  the  Wallace  collection,  though  the  Louvre  offers  a 
more  representative  exhibit  of  French  miniatures  than 
any  public  collection  here  does  of  English  miniatures, 
more's  the  pity  and  also  the  shame.  As  might  be 
expected,  the  French  artists  shone  most  in  the  orna- 
mental, graceful,  or  merely  pretty,  while  English 
miniaturists  did  best  in  portraiture.  English  snuff- 
boxes and  bonbon  boxes  ornamented  by  miniatures 
are  comparatively  few  (I  mean  old  ones,  for  the 
modern  imitations  are  many),  but  French  art  produced 
thousands  of  such  sumptuous  objects.  Some  of  these 
may  still  be  purchased,  but  only  for  much  money,  and 
according  to  my  experience  it  is  hardly  worth  while 
to  go  hunting  in  France  for  French  miniatures,  or  for 
English  miniatures  either. 

It  helps  one  to  distinguish  between  old  French  and 
old  English  miniatures  of  women  to  remember  that 
the  influence  of  Gainsborough  and  of  Reynolds  is 
visible  in  English  miniatures  of  English  women,  painted 
by  Cosway,  Engleheart  and  the  school,  while  no  such 
influence  is  visible  in  French  miniaturists' work;  whether 
in  large  or  small,  English  portrait-painters  of  women 
have  been  supreme. 
68 


IX.  MINIATURES  DONE  IN  ENAMEL 

ENAMEL  miniatures  are  a  variety  of  the  minia- 
tures done  upon  metal,  but  are  a  special  and  very 
important  class.  No  collection  is  representative 
unless  it  includes  some  examples,  but  to  come  upon  them 
cheaply  is  a  happy  chance.  A  fine  Petitot  miniature  in 
enamel  may  sell  for  hundreds  of  pounds,  and  for  a 
very  small,  defective  enamel  miniature  done  by  Bone 
as  much  as  £6  is  asked.  Many  enamel  miniatures  are 
defective,  alas,  because  the  surface  chips  and  flies  in 
places,  as  you  may  note  in  most  Battersea  enamels, 
and  there  are  other  dangers  also,  for  in  a  Zincke  enamel 
miniature,  offered  me  at  £100  in  its  diamond-set  frame 
and  at  £25  frameless,  my  pocket  lens  revealed  furrows 
caused  by  chemical  decomposition,  which  will  increase 
with  lapse  of  time,  and  cannot  be  checked.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  fine  enamel  miniature,  beautifully  painted 
and  treated  chemically  with  complete  skill,  presents  a 
richness  of  colour  and  a  brilliant  smoothness  of  surface 
which  in  those  respects  surpass  anything  ever  done  in 
water-colours  on  ivory  or  in  oils  upon  metal,  and  unless 
it  is  handled  carelessly,  it  may  last  in  its  perfection  for 
ever  and  a  day. 

The  miniature-painter  in  enamel  took  some  easily 
fusible  glass  to  which  the  desired  colour  had  been 
imparted  by  a  mixture  of  metallic  oxides.  This  being 

69 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 

fused,  washed,  and  then  ground  to  powder,  became  his 

pigment ;  and   his    palette,   so  to  speak,   consisted  of 

several  such  glassy  pigments,  each  a  minute  powder. 

Jean  Petitot  (1607-1691)  was  the  real  originator  of  the 

portrait-miniature  school  in  enamels,  and  his  method, 

^^^^^  followed  by  his  suc- 

4?i^^        s  ^sSi.  cessors,  was  to  take 

into   the    powdered 

No.  34A  that  is   to   say,  the 

painted    work    and 

the  plate  which  was  its  basis  were  placed  in  a  small  kiln 
and  exposed  to  heat,  which  fused  the  various  colours 
and  made  them  one  with  the  white  enamel  background 
and  the  basis.  But  as  firing  enamels  is  a  difficult 
process,  and  the  colours  after  firing  are  not  at  all  what 
they  were  before  it,  failure  often  resulted.  Yet  when 
success  was  obtained  it  rewarded  the  artist  for  many 
failures,  as  you  may  see  in  the  Jones  collection  at  South 
Kensington,  where  Petitot 's  best  work  is  kept. 


70 


MINIATURES    DONE    IN   ENAMEL 


ENAMEL  MINIATURES  DONE  IN  ENGLAND 

Petitot's  best  work  was  done  in  England  ;  so  was  that 
of  Zincke  (1 684-1 767).  Our  best  native  miniaturists  in 
enamel  were  N.  Hone  (1718-1784)  and  Bone  (1753- 
1834);  Engleheart  did  a 
few  enamels,  by  the  by. 

To  the  period  and  style 
of  Zincke  and  Hone  belongs 
No.  34A,  which  I  bought  at 
Exeter  for  £5  in  its  original 
shagreen  case ;  it  is  prob- 
ably a  portrait  of  Hogarth 
by  Zincke.  Bone  usually 
worked  on  metal  large  in 
size,  and  often  rectangular 
in  shape. 

Battersea  enamels,  our 
most  indigenous  product  of 
the  kind,  were  not  portraits 
as  a  rule,  and  those  which  were  intended  to  be  portraits 
were  not  painted  from  a  sitter,  but  produced  by  transfer 
printing  from  an  engraving,  and  then  slightly  tinted 
sometimes.  The  cases  at  the  Victoria  and  Albert 
Museum  show  oval  plaques  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
George  II,  his  son  Prince  Frederick,  George  III,  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  Walpole,  Gibbon,  and  "  the 
beautiful  Gunnings."  But  enamel  making  was  con- 
tinued in  London  after  the  Battersea  works  were  closed  ; 
black  and  white  enamel  portraits  were  also  executed  at 
Liverpool  ;  and  at  Bilston  during  the  latter  half  of  the 

71 


No.  34e 


COLLECTING  OLD   MINIATURES 

eighteenth  century  some  painted  (not  printed)  enamels 
were  done.  No.  34e  is  probably  one  of  them,  a  snuff 
box  lid  which  represents  Washington,  in  blue  and  flesh- 
colour  and  grey.  I  expect  the  enterprising  firm  at 
Bilston  intended  it  for  the  American  market  in  the 
United  States  which  had  so 
recently  come  into  being  ;  but 
I  got  it  for  23s.  6d.  at  a  pawn- 
shop in  theHampstead  Road. 
Smaller  Bilston  enamels  than 
this  are  extensively  counter- 
feited to-day,  and  I  am  not 
sure  that  this  is  contemporary. 

GERMAN  ENAMEL 
MINIATURES 

The  country  in  which  an 
enamel    was    produced    can 

almost     be     told    from    the 
No.  35  ....... 

prevailing   tint   or    it  ;    thus 

native  English  enamels  tend  to  be  black  and  white, 
pale  pink,  and  a  deep,  rather  crude  blue,  while  French 
enamels  show  brilliant  light  blues  and  rose  colour,  and 
German  enamels  are  characteristically  brown  and  dull 
yellow  in  tinting.  This  portrait  of  Frederick  the  Great 
when  rather  young,  No.  35,  might  be  known  as  German 
by  its  colouring,  therefore,  but  also  it  is  signed  by  a 
German  miniaturist  in  enamel,  Frederick  Weitz,  who 
flourished  in  Prussia  at  the  period.  I  dare  say  it  was 
one  of  King  Frederick's  gifts  to  some  lady,  some 
diplomat,  or  some  officer,  and  the  fact  that  the  frame  is 
72 


MINIATURES   DONE    IN    ENAMEL 

copper  does  not  weaken  that  supposition,  though  it 
is  the  original  frame,  for  Frederick  the  Great  was 
parsimonious.  Good  miniatures  in  enamel  were  done 
by  German  artists,  and  this  is  one  of  them.  I  was 
surprised  to  be  able  to  buy  it  at  Coventry  for  12s.  6d., 
but  the  dealer  judged  its 
value  by  the  frame.  The 
brown  tints  of  the  German 
enamelling  school  are  evi- 
dent ;  the  colour  of  the 
back  is  also  a  dingy  brown. 


FRENCH  ENAMEL 
MINIATURES 

It  is  a  relief  to  the 
colour  sense  to  look  at 
No.  36,  which  cost  me  18s. 
I  do  not  possess  a  Petitot, 
glorious  in  tinting  and  No  35 

exquisite  in  finish,  but  the 

blues  and  pinks  in  this  domestic  interior  after  the 
manner  of  Greuze  and  Watteau  are  delightful  to  the 
eye.  It  is  signed  "  Boze  "  ;  Joseph  Boze  (1746-1831) 
was  a  skilful  miniaturist  much  employed  by  the  French 
aristocracy.  Though  the  frame  is  more  modern  than 
the  enamel,  it  is  not  altogether  out  of  keeping,  for  it  is 
in  the  late  Empire  style,  which  Boze  lived  to  see  come 
into  vogue.  I  give  this  example  here  because  it 
represents  a  class  of  miniature — the  picture — which, 
as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  legitimately  belongs  to 
miniature  collecting  ;  no  doubt  contemporary  portraits 

73 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
are  the  most  desirable,  and  next  to  them  come  old 
copies  of  portraits,  but  a  landscape  or  an  interior  in 

little  is  worth  acquiring 
if  finely  done. 

SWISS  ENAMEL 
MINIATURES 

And  here,  No.  37, 
is  a  picture  miniature 
of  another  kind  yet — 
the  idealized  or 
imagined  single  figure. 
Swiss  enamels  are  akin 
to  the  French  enamels 
in  richness  of  colour, 
and  very  fine  work  of 
the  kind  used  to  be 
done  at  Geneva,  as,  indeed,  it  still  is.  Nothing  more 
dainty,  more  evidencing  a  colour  sense,  or  more  proving 
skill  in  the  painting  and  firing  than  this  picture  of  La 
Fileuse,  can  be  imagined,  but  it  cannot  be  sixty  years 
old.  It  cost  me  6s.  at  the  Caledonian  Market,  mounted 
with  a  silver  rim  ;  the  back  is  slate-coloured. 


No.  37 


74 


M 


X.  MINIATURES  DONE  ON 
PORCELAIN 

'INIATURES  done  on  porcelain  are  seldom 
collected.  Why?  The  author  of  the  first 
English  big  book  on  miniatures  did  not  collect 
miniatures  done  on  porcelain,  and  his  influence  ex- 
cluded them  from  the  Exhibition  of  Portrait  Miniatures 
organized  by  the  Burlington  Fine  Arts  Club  in  1 889  ; 
I  suppose  that  is  why.  They  were  also  excluded  from 
the  Exhibition  of  Miniatures  held  in  the  year  1865. 

Yet  the  surface  of  a  miniature  painted  in  enamel 
much  resembles  the  surface  of  one  done  on  porcelain,  and 
porcelain  is  painted  on  with  "  enamel  colours,"  though 
these  are  not  always  oxides  of  glass.  Henry  Bone,  R.A., 
perhaps  our  best  English  miniaturist  in  enamel,  began 
by  painting  china  at  Bristol,  and  the  hypercntics  have 
always  remembered  that  against  him.  Thus  one  author 
of  a  book  on  miniatures  finds  in  Henry  Bone's  enamels 
"  a  suggestion  of  painting  on  porcelain,  and  of  the 
smoothness  and  want  of  vitality  which  characterize 
that  kind  of  work,"  and  another  finds  in  Bone's  enamels 
"  something  of  the  curiously  feeble  effect  of  painted 
china." 

These  criticisms  may  pass  muster  with  people  who 
have  never  collected  old  china,  and  know  nothing  of 
the  beauty  of  "  Chelsea  "  or  "  Sevres  "  or  the  power 

75 


COLLECTING  OLD   MINIATURES 

and  vitality  of  the  decoration  upon  "  Oriental,"  but 
they  beg  the  question  ;  mere  material  is  nothing  in  itself, 
what  counts  is  the  art  in  the  work.  Painting  in  enamels 
and  enamel-painting  on  porcelain  both  have  to  be 
"  fired,"  and  the  colours  which  appear  on  the  surface 
before  the  work  goes  into  the  kiln  are  not  the  same  as 
those  which  appear  when  the  work  comes  out  of  the 
kiln  ;  the  only  true  differences  are  the  bases  and  the 
art.  A  plaque  of  porcelain  is  no  worse  a  base  than  a 
piece  of  copper,  and  if  miniatures  in  enamel  on  metal  are 
admissible  to  a  collection,  so  should  miniatures  on 
porcelain  be,  if  the  art  in  them  is  good.  It  all  depends 
on  the  artist ;  William  Billingsley,  for  instance,  painted 
roses  on  porcelain  better  than  roses  were  ever  painted 
on  ivory,  paper,  cardboard,  or  metal  by  anybody  else. 

This  prejudice  against  miniatures  on  porcelain 
enables  you  to  buy  them  cheaply  when  found,  but  on 
the  other  hand,  because  the  porcelain  base  has  been 
taboo,  there  are  few  fine  miniatures  on  porcelain  to 
collect.  We  may  rule  out,  of  course,  the  thousands  of 
"  fancy  "  heads  and  little  full-lengths  manufactured 
somewhat  less  than  a  century  ago,  to  be  set  in  gold  or 
pinchbeck  for  middle-class  women  to  wear  as  brooches  ; 
a  collector  sees  many  hundreds  of  these  in  a  year.  But 
what  he  seeks  for,  and  finds  once  in  a  year  at  most,  is 
a  fine  portrait  miniature  on  porcelain,  well  painted, 
which  is  consequently  a  work  of  art. 

THE  YOUNG  NAPOLEON 

Here  is  one,  No.  38,  after  the  portrait  by  Gros  ; 
it  represents  Napoleon  Buonaparte  as  he  was  about 
76 


MINIATURES  ON  PORCELAIN 

the  year  1798,  when  he  looked,  as  a  contemporary 
writer  recorded,  "  like  a  young  eagle  moulting."  Here, 
surely,  is  strong  portraiture,  with  none  of  the  finicking 
stipple-work  dear  to  collectors  of  miniatures  on  ivory 
only  ;  the  complexion  of  "  pallid  olive,"  is  well-rendered 
and  so  are  the  striking  features  and  the  expression. 
The  colour  is  refined, 
too,  the  oak-leaves 
and  acorns  of  the 
gold  braid  showing 
up  not  too  yellow 
against  the  tunic, 
which  is  not  too  blue. 
Isabey  and  Aubrey 
painted  several  fine 
miniatures  of  Na- 
poleon, but  none 
give  such  an  im- 
pression of  force  and  j^o  33 
keenness  as  this.  A 

collector  of  miniatures  who  would  disdain  to  acquire 
this,  in  its  old  "  Empire  "  frame,  at  the  price  of  7s.  6d., 
would  be  a  collector  whose  respect  for  rules  and  custom 
was  more  considerable  than  his  taste  m  art ;  but  if  he 
were  a  china-collector  too,  he  would  find  proof  that  this 
miniature  was  contemporary,  in  the  fact  that  the  por- 
celain is  "  soft  "  Sevres,  and  as  "  soft  Sevres  "  ceased 
to  be  made  soon  after  the  year  1798  the  work  is  of 
contemporary  date. 


77 


COLLECTING   OLD  MINIATURES 


THE  YOUNG  VICTORIA 

"  Soft,"  too,  is  the  porcelain  upon  which  this 
miniature  of  Queen  Victoria,  No.  39,  was  painted, 
probably  about  the  year  1837,  and  only  a  miniature 

collector  who  is  a  china- 
collector  too  could  say 
where  in  England 
"  soft  "  porcelain  was 
being  made  at  the  time 
of  the  young  Queen's 
accession.  There  is  no 
mark  upon  this  bit  of 
china,  so  that  I  think  it 
must  have  been  potted 
at  Madeley.  Coalport 
was  producing  "  soft  " 
china  in  1837,  but  as 
an  imitation  of  Sevres 
soft  porcelain  and 
bearing  a  Frenchy  mark.  At  Madeley  a  potter  named 
Randall  produced  soft  porcelain  so  late  as  1840, 
admirable  both  in  material  and  decoration,  but  he, 
honest  Quaker  that  he  was,  refused  to  copy  the  French 
mark  when  dealers  asked  him  to  do  so.  As  to  .ne 
portrait,  I  think  it  must  have  been  painted  in  Lc.idon, 
by  a  skilled  hand  at  miniature-work,  for  it  certainly 
shows  no  "  smoothness  and  want  of  vitality."  Some 
former  seller's  price  for  it  is  pencilled  on  the  back — 
42s. — but  I  bought  it  in  Richmond  for  less  than  a  fifth 
of  that  sum  ;  had  the  base  been  metal,  42s.  would 
78 


No.  39 


MINIATURES  ON  PORCELAIN 

have  been  a  fifth  of  the  sum  demanded.  There  is  no 
signature  upon  the  painting,  any  more  than  there  is 
upon  the  portrait  of  the  young  Napoleon  ;  signatures 
need  not  be  looked  for  upon  porcelain  miniatures,  and 
therefore  a  collector  is  free  to  estimate  them  entirely 
according  to  their  art.  In 
the  present  case  the  tinting 
and  modelling  of  the  neck 
and  shoulder  are  wonderful, 
and  the  eyes,  like  the  lips  and 
the  hair,  are  capitally  done. 


THE  YOUNG  EMPRESS 

Here  is  the  Empress 
Eugenie,  No.  40,  as  she 
looked  in  the  flush  of  her 
beauty  and  royalty.  The 
portrait  and  the  "  drawing  " 
speak  for  themselves,  even  in  No  40 

black-  and  -  white  repro- 
duction ;  you  can  see  the  beauty  of  the  eyes,  lips,  ex- 
pression, and  pose,  but  nothing  except  the  original  can 
show  the  rich  yet  refined  colour  of  the  robe  and 
the  cushion,  rose  and  mauve  showing  through  the 
lace  and  chiffon,  or  the  bright  auburn  of  the  hair. 
A  fine  artist — probably  Goudon — did  this  portrait,  yet 
left  no  trace  of  his  name  upon  it,  and  therefore,  as  also 
because  it  is  porcelain  and  not  on  metal,  I  was  able 
to  buy  it  for  12s.  6d.,  in  its  charming  old  frame  from 
which  most  of  the  gilding  is  gone.  I  daresay  an  artful 
dealer  would  fit  another  frame  to  it,  hide  the  porcelain 

79 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
at  the  back,  and  sell  this  as  a  "  fine  enamel  miniature 
of  the  Empress  Eugenie  "  for  a  considerable  price,  the 
"  feebleness  and  smoothness  "  alleged  to  appear  in 
porcelain  miniatures  notwithstanding.  So  I  think  I  have 
shown  that  a  collection  of  miniatures,  far  from  ex- 
cluding fine  work  done  on  china,  should  specifically 
include  it,  if  the  collection  is  to  be  considered  re- 
presentative. 

The  true  collector  is  one  who  goes  by  study,  taste, 
and  individuality,  not  by  convention  and  rule.  Too 
much  individuality  and  discarding  of  orthodoxy  is 
unwise  in  collecting,  as  it  is  in  most  things  ;  but  too 
much  conventionality  is  worse.  The  conventionality 
of  authorities  on  miniatures  has  prevented  a  clean, 
cleansable,  lasting,  and  inexpensive  base  and  process 
from  being  used  for  portrait  miniatures,  to  any  large 
extent. 


80 


XI.  MISCELLANEA  AND 
SIGNATURES 


i 


T  remains  to  say  something  concerning  minor  forms 
of  miniatures,  and  to  give  a  list  of  initial  signa- 
tures. 


EYE  MINIATURES 

When  Cosway  painted  a  miniature  of  one  of  the  eyes 
of  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  to  be  worn  in  a  bracelet  by  the 
Prince  Regent,  and  one  of  the  Prince  Regent's  eye,  to 
be  worn  in  a  ring  by  Mrs.  Fitz- 
herbert, he  set  a  fashion,  which 
spread  to  France.  A  miniature 
of  a  woman's  eye  set  in  a 
brooch,  such  as  No.  41,  need 
not  mean  that  it  was  painted 
for  a  woman's  wear,  for  in  those 
days  men  used  to  fasten  their 
cravats  with  brooches.  It  is 
remarkable  how  much  of  the  character  of  the  sitter  can 
be  read  from  a  picture  of  the  eye.  Eye  miniatures  are 
exceedingly  rare.  No  41 ,  set  in  a  beautifully  worked 
serpent  of  gold  (symbolizing  eternity),  is  probably 
French  work;  it  cost  me  17s.  at  a  jewellers  near 
Netting  Hill. 


No.  41 


81 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 


RING  MINIATURES 

Very  small  portraits,  of  women's  heads,  to  wear  in 

rings  were  painted.  The  illustration  No.  42  shows  a 
ring  containing  an  eye-miniature. 
Inscribed  at  the  back  of  the  collet 
are  the  words, "  General  Arabin  s 
right  eye,  1798."  In  this,  as  in 
some  other  eye  miniatures,  clouds 
appear  under  the  eye. 


No.  42 


BROOCH  AND  PIN  MINIATURES 
Brooch  miniatures   are 

numerous,  but  seldom  fine. 
Here  is  an  example,  No.  43,  set  in  silver-gilt,  which 
cost  me  10s.  in  a  jeweller's  shop.  Charing  Cross  Road  ; 
at  the  back  I  find 
engraved  "  Motee 
Mebal,  Queen  of 
Lucknow."  Small 
old  brooch  minia- 
tures of  nineteenth 
century  date  and 
style  are  not  worth 
acquiring.  But 
No.  44  is  an  old 
copy  of  a  French 
miniature,  of  the 
Directoire  period, 

as  is  shown  by  the  frame  of  silver-gilt  studded  with 
steel,  as  well  as  by  the  costume  ;  at  a  jeweller's  it  cost 

82 


No.  43 


MISCELLANEA  AND  SIGNATURES 

18s.     Small  heads  of  ladies,  dogs,  horses,  and  foxes  are 
found  in  enamel  or  on  ivory  in  tie-pins. 

PICTURE  MINIATURES 

Overleaf,  No.  45,  is  an  example  of  the  "  picture 
miniature  on  ivory  ;  cost  5s.  Of  course  this  cannot 
compare  '  with  [the 
larger  elaborate 
French  miniatures  in 
gouache,  representing 
dozens  of  people  in  a 
room,  or  whole  land- 
scapes ;  or  done  in 
enamels  for  golden 
snuff-box  tops. 

SILHOUETTES 

In  size  and  purpose  No  ^ 

silhouettes  are  por- 
trait miniatures,  but  they  are  such  a  separate  and  so 
large  a  branch  of  the  whole  subject  that  collectors  of 
miniatures  may  well  rule  them  out.  Silhouettes,  as  a 
variety  of  the  miniatures  done  on  paper,  were  the  work 
of  the  scissors,  though  sometimes  touched  with  gilt  or 
colour  by  the  brush  ;  silhouettes  painted  in  black  upon 
glass  belong  to  the  "  glass  "  miniatures  variety,  and  are 
more  properly  a  part  of  the  subject  than  the  others  can  be. 

MINIATURES  DONE  IN  WAX 

In  one  sense,  these  are  rare  ;    because   most  objects 
of  this  kind  are  too  large  to  be  considered   miniatures, 

83 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
and  should  be  called  reliefs  or  medallions.  The  finest 
are  to  be  seen  at  Hertford  House.  Mrs.  Patience 
Wright  did  many  wax  miniatures  in  New  England, 
came  to  London  in  1773,  and  did  many  here.  A  head 
and  bust  of  Washington,  fastened  upon  a  plate  of 

blackened  glass,  was 
perhaps  her  master- 
piece. The  best 
English  miniaturist 
in  wax  was  called 
Perry.  He  worked 
from  the  latter  part 
of  the  eighteenth 
to  the  first  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth 
centuries.  The  little 
head  of  Gains- 
borough, No.  46, 
cost  me  7s.  6d.,  and 
is  merely  given  as 
an  illustration  of  this  part  of  the  subject.  Collectors 
should  beware  ;  many  modern  imitations  lie  in  wait. 


MINIATURES  CUT  IN  IVORY  OR  WOOD 

Most  of  the  small  oval  .ivories  with  heads  in  relief 
which  a  collector  sees  in  curio-shops  are  quite  modern 
and  should  be  avoided,  but  occasionally  a  rather  old 
representation  of  a  king  or  other  famous  person  in  ivory 
may  be  found  ;  and  this  also  applies  to  miniatures  carved 
in  wood.  The  example  represented,  No.  47,  a  portrait 
84 


MISCELLANEA  AND  SIGNATURES 

of  Addison,  is  Italian  work,  to  judge  by  the  spelling  of 
the  name  ;   it  cost  6s. 

MINIATURES  DONE  IN  NEEDLEWORK 

These  are  excessively  rare  ;  one,  of  Charles  1,  may 
be  seen  at  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  ;  another, 
of  the  same  subject,  at  Hertford  House  ;  and  a  third 
is  known  to  be  in 
existence  :  one  done  in 
pearls  and  gems  is  to 
be  seen  at  the  London 
Museum.  Sometimes 
a  piece  of  stump-work 
(embossed  needlework) 
includes  a  face  that  was 
meant  to  be  a  por- 
trait, either  stitched  or 
painted  on  the  silk. 


No.  46 


MINIATURES  DONE 
IN  GLASS 

Heads,  busts,  or  full 

lengths  of  the  Young  Pretender,  his  father,  or 
William  of  Orange  are  found  on  wine-glasses,  but 
these  hardly  come  within  a  miniature  collector's  scope. 
There  are  box-tops  containing  opaque  glass  heads  of 
well-known  contemporary  people.  The  portraits  done 
by  Tassie,  too,  in  a  compost  of  glass  and  opal  colour,  are 
numerous,  and  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  minia- 
tures done  in  glass. 


85 


COLLECTING   OLD   MINIATURES 


CONCERNING  SIGNATURES 

When  examining  a  miniature  a  collector  looks  for  a 
signature,  but  as  I  have  already  explained,  need  not 
be  disconcerted  by  not  finding  one  ;  the  art  is  the  thing 

that  really  matters, 
and  fine  miniatures, 
like  pictures  by 
great  artists  who 
worked  on  a  larger 
scale,  are  "  signed  all 
over."  Nevertheless, 
these  chapters  would 
not  completely  deal 
with  their  subject  if 
they  did  not  include 
information  as  to 
where  to  look  for 
signatures,  and  as  to  what  certain  initials  and  mono- 
grams represent,  when  found. 

In  most  cases  a  lengthy  signature  such  as  "  R. 
Cosway  "  or  "  G.  Engleheart,"  if  it  exists  at  all,  will  be 
found  at  the  back  of  the  miniature,  between  the  ivory 
and  the  frame,  or  the  wrappings  and  the  frame.  Some- 
times a  partial  signature,  such  as  "  Isabey,"  is  found 
on  the  front  of  the  ivory,  but  as  a  rule  one  only  looks 
to  find  initials  or  monograms  there.  Most  minor 
miniatures  are  not  even  initialled  ;  but  the  masters, 
and  the  lesser  artists  too,  liked  to  sign  their  best  work, 
in  one  way  or  another.  Oftenest  the  initials  or  the 
monogram  may  be  found  intermixed,  so  to  speak, 
86 


No.  47 


MISCELLANEA    AND    SIGNATURES 

with  the  relative  obscurity  of  the  background  ;  often 
they  are  all  but  concealed  in  a  fold  of  the  dress,  or  in  a 
flow  of  the  hair  or  wig  ;  usually  they  are  done  very  small; 
sometimes  they  are  placed  so  near  to  the  edge  of  the 
oval  as  to  be  hidden  by  the  frame  or  setting  ;  in  a  few 
cases  (where  the  ivory  is  thick)  they  are  placed  on  the 
edge  of  it,  at  right  angles  to  the  flat  surface.  It  needs 
a  strong  lens,  a  strong  light,  and  a  prolonged  and  steady 
searching  of  every  part  of  the  miniature,  to  detect  a 
signature,  as  a  rule  ;  if  gilt  or  lead  pencil  has  been  used 
for  the  signature  it  will  be  invisible  except  in  a  certain 
fall  of  the  light.  In  the  Engleheart  miniature  illustrated 
in  a  former  chapter,  No.  24,  the  "  E  "  is  placed  just  within 
the  angle  made  by  the  left  cheek  and  the  coat  collar  ;  in 
No.  27  the  initials  hide  under  the  bodice  frill. 

Where  a  full  signature  appears,  the  collector  will 
have  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  information  as  to  the 
artist,  from  one  of  the  "  big  books  "  or  by  inquiry  at 
the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  ;  what  is  added  here 
is  some  account  of  what  certain  initials  and  monograms 
stand  for. 

INITIALS  AND  THEIR  SIGNIFICATION 

The  following  names  of  artists  refer  to  initials  and 
monograms  actually  found  upon  miniatures  which  exist 
in  public  and  private  collections.  I  have  arranged 
them  alphabetically  (in  the  order  of  the  initials,  not  of 
the  surnames),  as  this  seems  the  most  convenient 
method  ;  the  prefixed  star  indicates  an  artist  of  the 
pre-ivory  period  : 

A.  B.  L.,  Andrew  Benjamin  Lens  ;  *A.  C.,  Alexander 

87 


COLLECTING  OLD  MINIATURES 
Cooper  ;    A.  GM  Andrew  Grazlia  or  Graglia  ;    A.  P., 
plain  or  in  monogram,  Andrew  Plimer — very  small  ; 
A.   R.,    in    monogram,   Andrew   Robertson ;    *B.   G. 
Balthazar   Gerbier ;    *B.   L.,   in   monogram,   Bernard 
Lens  ;    C.  B.,  Charles  Beale  ;    C.  F.,  Charles  Fox  ; 
C.  F.  Z.,  plain  or  in  monogram,  C.  F.  Zincke  ;   C.  R., 
Christian  Richter  ;    *D.  D.  G.,  David  de  Grange  or 
des  Granges  ;    *D.  L.,  David  Logan  ;    D.  P.,  David 
Paton  ;  E.,  George  Engleheart ;   *F.  Thomas  Flatman  ; 
*F.  C.,  in  monogram,  Francis  Cleyn  ;    G.  C.,  in  mono- 
gram, George  Chinnery ;    G.  E.,  George  Engleheart ; 
G.  S.,  Gervase  Spencer  ;    *H.,  John   Hoskins   (senior 
and  junior)  ;    H.  B.,  H.  Bone  ;    H.  E.,  in  monogram, 
Henry  Edridge  ;    H.  H.,  Horace  Hone;    I.  B.,  John 
Bogle  ;    *I.  H.,  in  monogram,  John  Hoskins,  senior  ; 
I.  H.  fc.,  John  Hoskins,  junior  ;    I.  J.,  in  monogram, 
J.  B.   Isabey;    *I.  0.,   Isaac  Oliver;     I.  T.  B.,  John 
Thomas  Barber  ;  J.  B.,  John  Bogle  ;  J.  B.  I.,  in  mono- 
gram, J.  B.  Isabey  ;    J.  P.,  Jean  Parent ;    J.  S.,  John 
Smart  ;  J.  S.,  with  "  junr."  added,  John  Smart,  junior  ; 
J.  T.  B.,  John  Thomas  Barber  or  Beaumont  ;    L.  C., 
in  monogram,  Lawrence  Crosse  ;  L.  S.,  Luke  Sullivan  ; 
M.  B.,   Mrs.  Bradney,   Mary  Beale  ;    M.   L.,   Lady 
Lucan  ;    N.,  James  Nixom  ;    *N.  D.,  in   monogram, 
Nathaniel  Dixon  ;    N.  H.,  Nathaniel  Hone  ;    *N.  H., 
Nicholas  Hilliard  ;   N.  P.,  Nathaniel   Plimer  ;   0.  H., 
in  monogram,  Ozias  Humphrey  ;  *P.  C.,  in  monogram, 
Penelope  Cleyn  ;  P.  J.,  Paul  Jean  ;  *P.  L.,  Peter  Lens  ; 
*P.  0.,  in  monogram,  Peter  Oliver  ;    R.  B.,  Rodolphe 
Bel  ;    R.  C.,  Richard  Collins  ;    R.  C.,  Richard  Crosse  ; 
(R.    C.,    Richard    Cosway,    rarely) ;     R.    D.,    Richard 


MISCELLANEA  AND  SIGNATURES 
Dudman  ;  S.,  very  small,  James  Scouler  ;  S.,  Pierre 
Signac  ;  S.  A.,  Sarah  Addington  ;  S.  C.,  usually 
Samuel  Collins  ;  (*S.  C.,  rarely  Samuel  Cooper)  ; 
*S.  C.,  in  monogram,  Samuel  Cooper,  usually  in  gilt  ; 
S.  P.,  Samuel  Polack  ;  S.  S.,  Samuel  Shelley  ;  *T.  B., 
Thomas  Betts  ;  *T.  F.,  plain  or  in  monogram,  Thomas 
Flatman;  W.  B.,  William  Blake;  W.  E.,  William 
Essex. 

The  following  initials  are  found  upon  miniatures  in 
public  or  private  collections,  but  no  names  can  be 
assigned  to  the  artists  whom  they  presumably  represent  : 
A.,  A.  F.,  C.  H.,  C.  S.  C.  (in  monogram),  C.  T.,  G.  E., 
G.  H.  F.,  G.  M.  F.,  H.  S.,  I.  C.,  L.,  L.  H.,  M,  N.  K., 
P.  G.,  W.  C. 

Anonymous  these  are,  and  anonymous  many  good 
old  miniatures  must  always  remain  ;  but  I  will  be 
grateful  to  the  unknown  artists,  as  well  as  to  the  known, 
whose  work  gives  many  an  hour  of  delight  for  the  eye 
in  gazing,  and  the  mind  in  trying  to  appreciate.  Bio- 
graphy, history,  physiognomy,  colour,  and  drawing 
occupy  and  enlarge  the  mind  meanwhile,  and  also  there 
are  romance,  imagination,  and  the  cult  of  the  household 
gods.  What  art  is  so  daintily  homely  as  the  miniaturist's? 
Or  what "  so  valuable  in  diffusing  friendship,  in  reviving 
tenderness,  in  awakening  the  affections  of  the  absent 
and  continuing  the  presence  of  the  dead  "  ?  With 
gratitude,  therefore,  as  well  as  zest  I  have  written  this 
book,  now  brought  to  a  close. 


INDEX 


INDEX 

ABC  about  collecting,  30 
Accessories,  31 
Addison,  85,  86 
Alabaster,  29 

Anonymous  miniatures,  10 
Art  in,  a  test,  16,  22 
Artistic  style,  25 
Aubrey,  77 
Auction-rooms,  10,  12,43 

BACKGROUNDS,  32,  42,  51,  61,  64 

Back  of  frame,  42 

Backs  of  miniatures,  21 

Back- papers,  61 

Barker,  J.  T.,  88 

Barrows,  1 1 

Battersea  enamels,  71 

Beale,  C.,  88 

Beale,  Mary,  39 

Beard,  31 

Beauchamp,  Countess,  67 

Beaumont,  J.  F.,  88 

Bel,  R.,  67 

Bettes,  J.,  32 

Betts,  T.,  89 

Billingsley,  W.,  76 

Bilston  enamels,  71 

Blake,  W.,  89 

Bodice,  21 

Body-colour,  38,  63 

Bogle,  J.,  88 

Bon-bon  boxes,  24 

Bone,  H.  H.,  69,  75 

Bourgeois,  C.  G.  A.,  64 

Boxes,  24,  35 

Boze,  J.,  73 

Bradney,  Mrs.,88 


Bristol  blue  glass,  13 
Bristol  opal  glass,  13 
Brooches,  14 

Brooch-miniatures,  65,  82 
Bust,  20 

CABINET,  14 

Calash,  18 

Caledonian  Market,  1 1 

Cardboard,  27 

Caroline  of  Brunswick,  4,  5 

Celluloid,  17 

Character,  42 

Charles  I,  6,  34 

Chatelux,  Mme.  de,  12 

Chicken-skin,  65 

Chinese  white,  16,  18,  19,22,64 

Chinese  white  test,  19,  21 

Chinnery,  G.,  88 

Classes  of  miniatures,  25 

Classification  by  material,  27 

Clever  fraud,  1 7 

Cleyn,  39,  40 

Clouet,  29 

Coat-of-arms,  42 

Collections,  1,27,37,47,57,58, 

62,70 

Collins,  R.,  51 
Collins,  S.,  51 
Coloration,  31 
Contemporary,  26,  34 
Contemporary  portraits,  18 
Cooper,  A.,  88 
Cooper,  S.,  6,  7, 28, 29, 38, 39. 44 

Cooperesque,  38 

Copies  of  larger  pictures,  25 

Copper,  29 

93 


INDEX 


Costume  as  clue,  43 
Cosway,  R.,  23 
"  Cosway  "  hair,  49 
Cosway's  style,  49 
Cosway,  Mrs.,  51 
Cotes,  48 

Counterfeits,  15,  16 
Crayon,  26 
Critical  points,  19 
Crockett,  Miss,  58 
Cromwell,  6,  39 
Crosse,  L.,  33.  35 
Crosse,R.,88 
Cut  in  ivory,  84 

DALRYMPLE  Ellis,  Mrs.,  20 
Damp,  effect  of,  15 
Daubs,  16 

Definition  of  a  miniature,  25 
De  Grange,  D.,  88 
Digby,  Venetia,  42 
Diderot,  62 
Directoire  period,  4,  1 3 
Distinctive  styles,  48 

Dixon,  N..  39, 88 
Drawing,  20,  22 
Duchess  of  Manchester,  19 
Dudman,  R.,  59 
Duffer's  error,  18 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  71 
Dupuis,  12 

EDRiDGE,H.,48.51,57 

style,  60 

Empire  frame,  77 
Empire  style,  73 
Empress  Eugenie,  79 
Enamel  frames,  14 

miniatures,  24 
Engleheart.  G..  2.  19.20,48 
Engleheart's  style,  49,  54 
Essex.  W.,  89 
Eyebrows,  22 
Eye  miniatures,  82,  83 
Eyes,  19 

94 


FALSE  miniatures,  17 

Figures,  25 

Finely  painted  frauds,  23 

Fireplace,  near  miniatures,  14 

Fitzherbert,  Mrs.,  82 

Flatman,  39 

Forster,  T.,  45 

Fox,  C.,  88 

Frames,  3,  9.  13,  14,  29,  30,  31, 

37.  38.  59.  79 

Frameless  miniatures,  10,  30,  42 
Frauds,  19 
Fraudulent  miniatures,  16 

copies,  10 

Frederick  the  Great,  7 1,72 
French  artists,  29 

copies,  23 

enamels,  73 

miniatures,  13,  62,  68 
Frills,  21 
From  prints,  19 
Fur,  31 

GAINSBOROUGH,  84 

influence,  68 
Genuineness,  22 
George  11,71 

111,71 

IV,  5 

Gerbier,  B.,  88 
German  enamels,  72 
Gilding,  36 
Glass.  27 

miniatures,  85 
Gold.  29,  30,70 
Gold-beaters'-skin,  21 
Gold  (oil.  13 

frames,  14 
Grazlia,  A.,  3 
Greuze,  73 
Grimaldi.  W.,  57 

style,  60 
Gros,  76 
Gouache,  33,  63 
Goudon,  79 

HAIR  IN  FRAME,  13,  14,  54 


INDEX 


Hair,  powdered,  20 
Half-lengths,  25 
Heat,  effect  of,  15 
Henri  Quatre,  7 
Henrietta  Maria,  7 
Milliard.  N.,  37, 88 
Hogarth,  71 
Holbein,  7,  12,30,31,32 

school,  3 1,34,  37 

style,  31 
Hone.  N.,  71 
Hoppner,  58 
Hoskins,  6,  7 
Hume,  David,  9 
Humphrey,  0.,  57 

ILLUMINATION,  27, 28 

Impasto,  31,  32 
Initials,  42,  51 ,87 
Isabey,J.B.,63,67 
Ivory,  27 
boxes,  61 

JEAN,  P.,  57 
Jeweller's  shop,  13 

LACE,  21 

Lady  Hamilton,  17,  18 

Northwick,  56 

Skipwith,  50 
Landscapes,  25 
Lawrence,  Sir  T.,  5,  46 
Lead  pencil,  26 
Lens,  Bernard,  9,  10 

glass,  16,20,23 
Letter  S,  49 
Lights,  17,  18 
Lips,  19 
Littlejohns,  45 
Liverpool  enamels,  71 
Loggan,  D.,  45 
Loose  miniatures,  14 
Loudoun,  Earl  of,  43,  44 
Lucan,  Lady,  88 

MARINE  stores,  44 
Marvell,  Andrew,  38 


Material,  25 
Medallion,  32 
Medium,  25,  26,  38 
Mee,  Mrs.,  57 
Metal,  27,  29 
Mid- Victorian,  13 
Mignard,  62 
Mignature,  62 
Milton,  34 
Miniatura,  28 
Miniature  in  character,  26 
Miniatures  on  metal,  29 

on  vellum,  28 
Minium,  25,  28 
Minor  artists,  56 
Missal,  27,  28,  36 
Modelling,  23 
"  Modern  antique,"  the,  13 
Monograms,  42 
More,  Sir  A.,  32 
Moustache,  31 
Mutton  bone,  29 

NAMELESS,  42 
Names  of  sitters,  10,42 
Nanteuil,  37 
Napoleon,  76 
Necks,  19 

Neck  miniatures,  60 
Needlework,  26 
Nixon,  J.,  57,  88 

OILS,  29 
"  Old,"  34 

contemporary,  38 

copies,  42 
Oliver,  P.,  26,  42, 88 

PAPER,  27 
Parent,  J.,  88 
Pasquier,  4 
Paste,  frame,  29 

old,  13 
Paton,  D.,  88 
Pawnbrokers,  30 
Pawnshops,  12 
Pearls,  19,  24 


95 


INDEX 


Pecorella,  36 
Pendants,  14 
Pepys,  39 
Perry,  84 

Petitot.37,68,69,70.71 
Photo-lithography,  18 
Photography,  34 
Picture  miniatures,  83 
Pin  miniatures,  82 
Playing-card,  36 
Plimer,  A..  11,  19 
Plimer's  style,  49,  55 
Plumbagoes,  45 
Pocket  lens.  17,22 
Polaclc,  S..  89 
Portrait-books,  9 
Portrait  miniatures,  26 
Portraits  sous  voile,  67 
Porcelain,  11.26.27,75 
Precious  metal,  29,  30 
Prince  Frederick,  71 
Printed,  18 

QUEEN  Anne's  time,  34 
of  Lucknow,  82 
Mary.  32 
of  Scots,  34 
Victoria,  28,  78 

RE-FRAMING,  14 
Repairs,  4 1,  59 
Restoration,  31,  41 
Reynolds.  Sir  J.,  50 

influence,  68 
Richelieu.  30 
Richter.  C..  88 
Ring  miniatures,  82 
Robertson,  A.,  57 
Romney,  17.  18 
Ross,  Sir  W..  57 
Rosse.  Mrs.,  45 
Roujon,  M.,  62 
Rubbing,  42 

Ruff.  31 
Russell.  J..  57 

ST.  Bruno.  29 


Screens,  hanging  on,  14 
Scouler.  J.,  89 
Sculptured,  27 
Sevigne,  Mme.,  36 
Shadows,  17,  18 
Shagreen  case,  29 
Shape  of  miniatures,  37,  38 
Shelley,  S.,  26.  48.  57 
Signac,  P.,  89 
Signatures,  52,  86 
Silhouettes,  83 
Silver,  29,  70 
-gilt.  37 
Sitter.  26 
Slate.  29 
Smart,  J.,  51.  56 
Snuff  boxes,  24 
Society  of  Miniaturists,  34 
Spencer,  G.,  88 
Stippling.  20,  23 
Stitched,  27 
Sullivan,  L.,  88 
Sunshine  on  miniatures,  14 
Swiss  enamels,  74 

TASSIE,  85 
Transition  to  ivory,  34 

in  shape,  37 
Turquoises  in  frame,  18 

VALUE,  22 
Vellum,  25,  27,  28 

WALPOLE,  Horace,  39 
Washington,  72 
Watteau,  73 
Wax,  26 

miniatures,  83 
Weitz,  F.,  72 
Wellington,  65 
Wiatt.SirT.,31 
Williamson,  Dr..  44.  48 
Wood.  W..  5 1,57 
Wooden  miniatures,  84 
Wright,  Mrs..  84 
Workmanship,  22 

ZlNCKE.  69.  71 


o 

o 


A     000  046  542     7 


